In Memory of David French

Our friend and colleague, retired patent attorney David French, passed away on December 2, 2018 at the age of 75.

French worked as a patent attorney in a private firm for four years and then joined the Canadian government for six years’ work on patent law reform. He thereafter practiced patent law for 30 years, acting for Canadians before the U.S. and Canadian Patent Offices as well as maintaining a general practice in the field of Intellectual Property Law in his firm, Second Counsel Services.

In 2011, French began following developments in the LENR field and had been actively involved in the field since then, attending conferences and writing on patent-related issues. His experience and insights have been very useful in the past five years.

Beginning in 2011, French wrote extensively for Cold Fusion Now, mostly about patent issues. See the archive at https://coldfusionnow.org/patents/

In 2016, French provided important feedback to Infinite Energy about the Andrea Rossi/Industrial Heat lawsuit. See Marianne Macy’s interview with French in Issue 127. He also wrote about the suit in Issue 129.

French had broad interests and seemingly could write or speak on any topic. He offered Infinite Energy an essay titled “Is Innovation Sufficient to Save a Nation in the Competitive Marketplace?” (Issue 131) and reviewed the book Elixir for our special issue on water (Issue 134).

Two of French’s papers on cold fusion patenting are available online: “Patents and Cold Fusion” and his paper from the 2017 International Workshop on Anomalies in Hydrogen Loaded Metals, “Key Principles for Patenting in the Land of LENR” (pages 98-108).

David French was a kind, generous man who will be missed by all who knew him.