50th Reunion Essay – Charles Dennis Ahearn

Charles Dennis Ahearn
6201 Inwood Street, Cheverly, MD 20785
Email: cdennisahearn@gmail.com
Phone(s): 301-467-8434

Spouse(s): Diane Kienast (1980 – )
Child(ren): Brendan Patrick (1984); Holly Marie (1986)
Education: University of San Francisco School of law, JD with Honors (1978)
National Service: US Air Force (1969 – 75)
Career: Intellectual Property Attorney in all areas of IP law, Washington, DC area, 25 years, now specializing in start-up and small/medium sized businesses; Open Source Software licensing expert; Data Rights in Government Contracts expert; Space Law.
Avocations: Alternative energy sources and implementation; environmental issues; commercial space development activities; Yale Swimming; Masters Swimming.
College: Branford

Attending Yale, the friends I made and the experiences I had are at the very top of my most cherished memories list. I still dearly love Yale and follow its fortunes closely, getting back occasionally when I am able. The Yale Experience is indeed a central part of my identity.

I went into the US Air Force in the fall of 1969 and was an officer until leaving in June 1975 to attend the University of San Francisco Law School, graduating in 1978. I went to Washington, DC, to practice nuclear energy law at a firm but soon tired of it because it was just a purely regulatory practice. After some additional work in other areas, I joined a start-up company named Transpace Carriers, Inc., which was attempting to commercialize NASA’s Delta launch vehicle in 1982, a kind of very early SpaceX. Unfortunately, NASA really didn’t want us to succeed because they did not want any competition to the Shuttle around for commercial satellite launches and they fought us tooth and nail. When the Challenger exploded in January 1986, McDonnell Douglas, the manufacturer of the Delta, seeing potential large dollars available, suddenly decided they wanted to commercialize the Delta and NASA gave the program to them despite being within days of signing the program over to us. We won a lawsuit against NASA for their actions, but it wasn’t much of a recompense.

I was on my own as a “space lawyer” for several years, but was just barely surviving since commercial space had not really gotten going yet. I joined COMSAT Corporation as their intellectual property person (I had taken and passed the Patent Bar), stayed with them for almost 10 years, and then joined Lockheed Martin as second in command in their IP department for another 10 years. These were both great and interesting jobs. I retired from Lockheed in 2010, took an 18-month sabbatical, and decided I was way too young to really retire, so I joined Axiom Law in Washington, DC, and through them worked at Science Applications International Corporation (“SAIC”) for more than four years, leaving when my contract was finally up. I was their sole IP guy and also became an expert at data rights in government contracts. I am now on my own, working with small to midsize young companies essentially as a country doctor of IP covering all aspects of all IP/data rights areas of government and commercial contracts and technology law in general. I am having fun and expect to work for another five years or so and then actually retire. My most interesting client is a very small company named Astrapi Corporation that has discovered a whole new form of telecommunications technology that will, if it works as expected, revolutionize all of telecommunications. We will know if it does work by the end of 2018.

My wife, Diane, and kids, Brendan and Holly, are all doing well and are the best part of my life. Nothing can replace family.