Mickey Krieger was a friend, mentor, and served as Of Counsel to this firm on trademark matters for several years. He died on October 25th after a battle with esophageal cancer. His death came less than three weeks after Raun Burnham, who worked for many years with the firm as a trademark paralegal, lost her battle with neuroendocrine cancer.
Mickey was a true Renaissance Man which, according to Brittanica, is derived from the Renaissance ideal that “a man can do all things if he will” and, thus, “the gifted men of the Renaissance sought to develop skills in all areas of knowledge, in physical development, in social accomplishments, and in the arts.”
He held degrees in mathematics from Caltech (B.S.) and UCLA (Ph.D.) and spent ten years on the UCLA and MIT computer science and mathematics faculties, after which he was intern/scholar for information policy at the National Telecommunications and Information Agency. MIckey then turned to law, receiving his J.D. from UCLA and then teaching Computer Science in Brazil as a visiting Fulbright Scholar.
Mickey had an accomplished legal career with a practice devoted to high technology business issues, especially for software, multimedia and Internet-related development, acquisition, licensing, distribution and services and trademarks where his clients included an Oscar-winning actress. He also assisted in programs related to intellectual property for government entities including the U.S. Commerce Department and the Brazil/UN Software Export project.
He was active with the California Bar Intellectual Property section where he helped launch their bi-annual IP and the Internet conference. I first met Mickey as a speaker at one of the early conferences.
He was active with the California Bar Intellectual Property section where he helped launch their bi-annual IP and the Internet conference. I first met Mickey as a speaker at one of the early conferences.
At the same time, Mickey remained actively connected with the UCLA Computer Science Department, where he founded and led two innovative graduate seminar series “Entrepreneurship: Technology Business Fundamentals” and “Entrepreneurship and E-Commerce.” He also took part on the Advisory Boards of the Caltech Enterprise Forum and the Los Angeles Business Technology Center.
Over a beer, Mickey could regale you with stories about Richard Feynman, history, politics, the city he loved, Caltech’s famous pranks or a story about how he crafted an argument to convince a trademark examiner to approve his client’s trademark. He was devoted alumni of both UCLA and CalTech and I was glad to accompany him to national security roundtables at UCLA and a number of events at CalTech including its Enterprise Forum and a screening of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” celebrating the 100th anniversary of legendary director Frank Capra’s graduation from CalTech that featured his son, actor Jimmy Hawkins, who played Little Tommy in the film and a critic.
Mickey’s younger brother, Jerold Krieger was a Superior Court judge and pioneer for gay rights beforing dying of cancer in 2002.