Charles Henry Tenney

Charles Henry Tenney (January 28, 1911 – November 11, 1994) was a United States federal judge.

Born in New York, New York, Tenney received an A.B. from Yale University in 1933 and an LL.B. from Yale Law School in 1936. He was in private practice in New York City from 1936 to 1942. He was a U.S. Naval Reserve Lieutenant Commander during World War II, from 1942 to 1946. He was in private practice in New York City from 1946 to 1955. He was a Commissioner, Department of Investigation, New York City from 1955 to 1958. He was a Corporation counsel, New York City from 1958 to 1961. He was a City administrator, New York City from 1961 to 1962. He was a Deputy mayor, New York City from 1962 to 1964.

On July 22, 1963, Tenney was nominated by President John F. Kennedy to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York vacated by Alexander Bicks. Tenney was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 5, 1963, and received his commission on December 12, 1963. He assumed senior status on January 31, 1979. Tenney served in that capacity until his death, in Islip, New York.

He was the grandson of Charles H. Tenney, founder of C.H. Tenney & Co., who made his fortune as the leading hat dealer in the world throughout both the late Victorian era and the Edwardian era and was also a New York banker. Judge Tenney's daughter Patricia Lusk Tenney married John Randolph Hearst, Jr., the grandson of newspaper man and publisher William Randolph Hearst.

Judge Tenney is the author of the seminal patent damages case, Georgia-Pacific Corp. v. U.S. Plywood Corp., 318 F.Supp. 1116 (S.D.N.Y. 1970). In it, he set forth fifteen non-exclusive factors to assist courts in determining the "reasonable royalty" owed a patentholder by an infringer in a patent suit. His opinion has since been cited in more than five-hundred court opinions.

Sources

• Charles Henry Tenney at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.