The Scouter Digest Staff

Thomas W. Brooke protects intellectual property rights for a wide variety of clients located all over the world, ranging from large and small corporations, associations and trade groups to entrepreneurial individuals. His work ranges from initial counseling and trademark selection, copyright and trademark registration around the world, licensing and technology transfers to intellectual property litigation throughout the United States and in every major country. Related matters include drafting and interpreting agreements relating to ownership and use of names, images, photographs, software, trade secrets, music and other intellectual property. Martindale-Hubbell rates Mr. Brooke as an AV Preeminent Peer Reviewed lawyer. Other honors include yearly listings in Who’s Who Legal and Washington, D.C., Super Lawyers magazine.

Mr. Brooke ranks among the most prolific filers of U.S. trademark applications, and has strong relationships within the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In 2016, the International Trademark Association (INTA) asked him to serve a two-year stint as chair of the association’s U.S. Trademark Office Practices Committee, working directly with the U.S. Commissioner of Trademarks and other top-level staff at the USPTO. He previously served as chair of the INTA’s U.S. Legislation Committee, where he helped craft the Federal Anti-Cyber Piracy Act and the Federal Trademark Dilution statute. He currently serves on the INTA Internet Committee, focusing on data privacy issues. Other association and volunteer work include past service as chair of the Trademark Division of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Intellectual Property Law Section and as a member of the Section Counsel, membership on the INTA’s North American Advisory Council, Amicus Committee and Emerging Issues Committees, as well as leadership roles with the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) and the Intellectual Property Sections of the District of Columbia and Virginia Bars.

In addition to professional volunteer work, Mr. Brooke is Scoutmaster of Troop 128 in McLean, and previously served as Cubmaster of Pack 665.  He has also served on the Executive Board of the National Capital Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America.  Other volunteer service include tenure on the Vestry of his Church and involvement as member and officer of a number of civic groups in Fairfax and Arlington Counties.

Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Brooke worked on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., as a legislative assistant to the late Sen. John McCain and former Rep. Frank R. Wolf.

Congratulations to Thomas and his fellow 2022 NOESA Honorees! Please join us on March 23, 2022 at Army Navy Country Club for a celebration honoring the 2022 NOESA recipients. For more information visit, www.ncacbsa.org/noesa/.

David Morriss is a native of Elizabethton, Tennessee.  He is a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Class of 1979, and spent the first five years of his Navy career as a surface warfare officer.  After serving as the Supporting Arms Coordinator for the U.S. Marines in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1983 at the time of the Marine Barracks bombing, he was accepted to the University of Virginia School of Law under the Navy’s law education program.  He graduated in 1987 with a Juris Doctors degree and was assigned to Charleston, South Carolina, prosecuting and defending courts-martial and providing legal advice to Navy commanders.  In 1990, he was selected to become the Assistant Special Counsel to the Chief of Naval Operations in the Pentagon.  In 1992, Morriss was assigned to the Administrative Law Division in the Office of the Navy Judge Advocate General and in 1994 he was admitted to Harvard Law School to pursue a Masters in Law focusing on international and environmental law.  Following graduation in 1995, Morriss was assigned as the Fleet and Force Judge Advocate for the U.S. Fifth Fleet and U.S. Naval Forces Central Command headquartered in Manama, Bahrain.

In 1997, he returned to the United States to serve in the Navy’s Office of Legislative Affairs.  Morriss was selected for and assumed command of Naval Legal Services Office, North Central in Washington, DC in 2000.  In late 2001, he became the Legal and Legislative Counsel to the Vice Chief of Naval Operations and in 2003 he returned to the Navy’s Office of Legislative Affairs as the Director of Legislation.  Morriss retired from the Navy in 2005 as a Captain after 26 years of commissioned service and immediately joined the Senate Armed Services Committee staff under its Chairman John Warner.  In 2007, Morriss was selected to become the Minority General Counsel for Senator John McCain.  In 2011, Morriss became the Minority Staff Director.  In 2012, Morriss left the Senate for the private sector and joined General Dynamics.

Morriss joined the Boy Scouts in 1968.  He attended the 1969 National Boy Scout Jamboree, went to Philmont in 1972, and became an Eagle Scout that year.  He served as Senior Patrol Leader for his troop at the National Jamboree in 1973.  He is a member of the Order of the Arrow.  His son, Graham, is also an Eagle Scout.

Congratulations to David and his fellow 2022 NOESA Honorees! Please join us on March 23, 2022 at Army Navy Country Club for a celebration honoring the 2022 NOESA recipients. For more information visit, www.ncacbsa.org/noesa/.