Olive, Billy Brown, 1921-

Billy Brown Olive of Durham, N.C., is a North Carolina attorney who specializes in patent and intellectual property law. In 1957, he established Olive & Olive, the first patent law firm to serve the Research Triangle Park area, and taught proprietary and engineering law classes at the Duke School of Engineering and the School of Product Design at North Carolina State University. For more than 40 years, Olive was involved in civic affairs, specifically those relating to the environment and environmental racism. Locally, he was involved in the opposition to specific routes of Interstate 40 in Orange County, N.C., serving as coordinator with Opposition to I-40 in Orange County. He also opposed the Eubanks Road landfill site in Orange County, N.C. and the East/West Expressway route through the historically African American Crest Street community in Durham, N.C.

Billy Brown Olive of Durham, N.C., is a North Carolina attorney who specializes in patent and intellectual property law. He received his degree in electrical engineering from Duke University in 1948 and went on to work with the Westinghouse Electric International Company in New York. It was during his time in New York that Olive earned his law degree from Saint John's University. He worked for Fieldcrest Mills in Leaksville, N.C., before establishing Olive & Olive in 1957, the first patent law firm to serve the Research Triangle Park area. For the next 15 years, he also taught proprietary and engineering law classes at the Duke School of Engineering and the School of Product Design at North Carolina State University.

For more than 40 years, Olive was involved in civic affairs, specifically those relating to the environment. Locally, he was involved in the opposition of specific routes of Interstate 40 in Orange County, N.C., serving as coordinator with Opposition to I-40 in Orange County. He also opposed the Eubanks Road landfill site in Orange County and the East/West Expressway route through the historically African American Crest Street community in Durham. In addition, Olive founded the North Carolina Bar Association's committee on intellectual property law. He received military awards from both the United States and France, an award for civic service from the State of North Carolina, the Distinguished Alumnus Award of Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering, and the Charles Korstian Award of the Nicholas School of the Environment.