Glen Earl Weston, the S. Chesterfield Oppenheim Professor of Antitrust and Trade Regulation Law Emeritus, passed away on Sunday, July 26, 2020, at the age of 98.
Professor Emeritus Weston enjoyed a 40-year teaching career at GW Law and rose to international prominence in the fields of antitrust, trade regulation, and intellectual property.
Professor Emeritus Weston was born in rural Oklahoma. He received a BS from the University of Maryland in 1943. Immediately after graduation, he went to Officer Candidate Training School, and in September 1944 joined the US Army in Europe to fight in World War II. After two years of military service, he came to GW Law where he completed his studies in two years and graduated first in his class. He joined the law school faculty in 1949 and remained there until his retirement in 1989.
While a student at GW Law, Professor Emeritus Weston befriended Professor S. Chesterfield Oppenheim, an authority on antitrust and trade regulation. Professor Emeritus Weston and Professor Oppenheim remained lifelong colleagues, co-authoring books such as the Lawyer’s Robinson-Patman Act Sourcebook, Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection, and Federal Antitrust Laws.
In 1978, Professor Emeritus Weston spearheaded the successful effort to raise funds for the S. Chesterfield Oppenheim Professorship of Antitrust and Trade Regulation Law, which became the first endowed chair at GW Law. He also helped expand the Intellectual Property Program, establishing the first courses in Copyright Law, Patent Licensing, and International Patent Law. He was active for many years in the International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property (ATRIP) and served as its President from 1987 to 1989.
Professor Emeritus Weston’s professional accomplishments were also international. In 1976, he taught in Australia and assisted in the establishment of the Australian Trade Practices Commission, now called the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. He also taught for two six-month periods in Jakarta, Indonesia. In addition, he spent a year at the Max Planck Institute in Germany in 1982. He was well known among Intellectual property academics there, as well as throughout Europe and in developing countries around the world.