Circuit Judge Alan D. Lourie was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on April 6, 1990, by President George H. W. Bush. He was formerly Vice President, Corporate Patents and Trademarks, and Associate General Counsel of SmithKline Beecham Corporation.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 13, 1935, Judge Lourie received his Bachelor's degree from Harvard University (1956), his Master's degree in organic chemistry from the University of Wisconsin (1958), and his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania (1965). He received his J.D. degree from Temple University in 1970.

Before being appointed to the court, Judge Lourie had been President of the Philadelphia Patent Law Association, a member of the Board of Directors of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (formerly American Patent Law Association), treasurer of the Association of Corporate Patent Counsel, and a member of the board of directors of the Intellectual Property Owners Association. He was also Vice Chairman of the Industry Functional Advisory Committee on Intellectual Property Rights for Trade Policy Matters (IFAC 3) for the Department of Commerce and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. He was a member of the U.S. delegation to the Diplomatic Conference on the Revision of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, held in Geneva in October and November 1982, and in March 1984. He was chairman of the Patent Committee of the Law Section of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association from 1980 to 1985.

Judge Lourie was awarded the Jefferson Medal of the New Jersey Intellectual Property Law Association for extraordinary contributions to the field of intellectual property law in 1998; was a recipient of the Intellectual Property Owners Education Foundation Distinguished Intellectual Property Professional Award for extraordinary leadership in the intellectual property community and a lifetime commitment to invention and innovation in 2008; was a recipient of the Philadelphia Intellectual Property Law Association's Award for outstanding IP achievement in 2010; was a recipient of the Boston Patent Law Association's Distinguished Public Service Award in 2011; was a recipient of a "lifetime achievement" award from The Sedona Conference in 2011; and recently was a recipient of NYIPLA's 10th Annual Outstanding Public Service Award in 2012.

He was a member of the Judicial Conference Committee on Financial Disclosure from 1990 to 1998 and has been a member of the Committee on Codes of Conduct since 2005. He is a member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the American Chemical Society, the Cosmos Club, and the Harvard Club of Washington.

Judge Lourie is married and has two daughters and four grandchildren.