[1] Oman studied at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1960-61 and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Hamilton College in 1962.

From 1962 to 1964, Oman worked for the U.S. Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer in Saudi Arabia.

He helped the Senator draft the language and negotiate the compromises that resulted in the passage of the Copyright Act of 1976.

In 1982, Oman became Chief Counsel of the newly revived Subcommittee on Patents, Copyrights, and Trademarks, and in 1985 he scheduled the first Senate hearing in 50 years on U.S. adherence to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.

[1] In 1990, he headed the U.S. delegation to the diplomatic conference that adopted the Washington Treaty on the Protection of Microchips, and he co-chaired the Celebration of the Bicentennial of the U.S. patent and copyright laws.