Haynes and Boone's Newsroom

Meet the New Director of the USPTO
09/21/2009
Bart Fisher

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has a new leader at the helm. On August 13, 2009, David Kappos was sworn in as the new director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”). Director Kappos was nominated by President Obama to replace John Doll, who had been the Acting Director since the resignation of Jon Dudas in January 2009.

Director Kappos graduated from the University of California at Davis in 1983 with an electrical and computer engineering degree, and began his career at IBM as a development engineer. He received his law degree from the University of California at Berkley in 1990, whereupon he joined IBM’s legal department. Director Kappos remained at IBM until his swearing in ceremony. During his tenure at IBM, Director Kappos held several important in-house counsel positions, through which he influenced IBM’s intellectual property policies, and managed IBM’s worldwide patent portfolio. For the past 16 years, IBM has led all U.S. companies in patent filings. Last year, IBM received 4,186 U.S. patents, becoming the first company ever to earn more than 4,000 U.S. patents in a single year. Many practitioners believe that Director Kappos will use his over 20 years of experience as an engineer and a patent attorney to fix — or at least minimize — the daunting issues currently facing the USPTO.

Director Kappos has taken the helm of the USPTO at a time when the organization faces considerable challenges on several fronts. For example, the USPTO has been financially pressured by the worldwide economic recession. The impact of the economic recession on the USPTO has been especially hard because it is funded solely by fees collected from its patent and trademark application, prosecution, maintenance and renewal processes. A recent large drop in the number of patent application filings has resulted in a significant decrease in fee collections. In response to the shortfall, the USPTO recently suspended overtime pay, initiated a hiring freeze, and reduced its $1.9 billion annual budget by approximately $140 million. Legislation was also recently passed that permits the patent side of USPTO operations to use a surplus from the trademark side of operations.

To read the full article, click on the PDF below.