By Godson Umejiego, Senior Correspondent USA
America’s Innovation Agency – the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has welcomed Kathi Vidal as the new Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and agency Director, a role in which she will provide leadership and oversight to one of the largest intellectual property (IP) offices in the world and serve as principal advisor to President Biden through US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo on domestic and international IP policy.
“Kathi Vidal’s leadership and expertise will be instrumental in executing USPTO’s mission to protect and empower US entrepreneurs,” said Secretary Raimondo. “Now more than ever, we need to expand opportunities for more innovators, and reestablish American leadership in technological, scientific, and commercial innovation. We are so fortunate to bring Kathi on board, and I am confident that the Department will benefit immensely from her rich technical background and decades of patent experience.”
“I am excited to join America’s innovation agency,” said Director Vidal. “This nationwide workforce of more than 13,000 employees is one of the most talented and respected the world over, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to work with them to help bring more ideas to impact, including in key technologies and through inclusive innovation and entrepreneurship. I also want to thank Drew Hirshfeld for his invaluable leadership and commitment to the USPTO, and for his decades of distinguished service. I look forward to working closely with him in the months ahead.” Hirshfeld, who was appointed Commissioner for Patents in 2015 and again in 2020, had been performing the functions and duties of Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO since January 20, 2021. At Director Vidal’s request, he will serve as her acting Deputy Director until a political Deputy Director is named. Hirshfeld recently announced his plans to depart government service this summer.
Prior to joining the USPTO, Director Vidal helped harness and protect innovation at all levels. Throughout her career, she has represented new innovators and startup companies with limited resources. She has also represented many of our country’s most successful and well-known companies. She was most recently a managing partner and Executive Committee member at Winston & Strawn LLP, where she represented both patent holders and defendants in US district courts and the International Trade Commission. She has also been deeply involved in practice before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, argued numerous Federal Circuit appeals, and led amicus efforts on important cases before the Federal Circuit and the Supreme Court. She has received many awards as a top litigator and was inducted into the Litigation Counsel of America, a society of the leading American trial lawyers. Before joining Winston & Strawn, she led a litigation group of 270 attorneys in 11 global offices at Fish & Richardson and sat on the firm’s Management Committee.
Director Vidal began her career as a systems and software design engineer with General Electric and Lockheed Martin, where she designed one of the first artificial intelligence systems for aircraft, as well as aircraft and engine-control systems that continue to keep our military safe today.
Director Vidal has spent her career championing the importance of mentoring and expanding opportunities to include more individuals from underserved communities. She has played an active role on the advisory board of ChIPs (women in policy, law, and technology) and on other boards and committees focused on diversity and inclusion, and has mentored diverse women across the globe as part of the Fortune-US Department of State Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership programme.
Director Vidal worked as a law clerk for Judge Alvin Anthony Schall on the United States Court of Appeal for the Federal Circuit. She holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Binghamton University, a Master of Science in electrical engineering from Syracuse University, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania where she was Editor-in-Chief of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. Director Vidal grew up in a career military family and spent her informative years on military bases in the United States, Panama, Germany, and the Azorean Islands (Portugal). An avid marathoner and golfer, Director Vidal has also competed in crew, equestrian polo, and played volleyball at the collegiate level, among her many athletic accomplishments.
We now reproduce Vidal’s inaugural speech:
Working to Make Our Intellectual Property System Drive an Innovation Economy
Earlier today, I was sworn in by Chief Judge Kimberly A. Moore of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit as the new Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). I am both honored and excited to lead America’s Innovation Agency and to move our Country forward.
As Director, I want to begin a dialogue on steps we can take together to expand, protect, and commercialize US innovation. Over the next few months, I plan to engage with and listen to as many stakeholders as I can. I want to hear from creators, inventors, entrepreneurs, and all those with big dreams from every walk of life, in every state and region—especially those who have historically lacked access to, and opportunities for equitable participation in, our intellectual property (IP) economy.
The current Administration, including Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, recognizes that innovation is the key to unlocking our future. Under this Administration, the USPTO advanced the Council for Inclusive Innovation (CI2), which Secretary Raimondo chairs and I am excited to vice-chair. The USPTO has spent significant time and effort expanding programs in innovation education and outreach. We also maintain four regional offices across the country and an Eastern Regional Outreach Office within our headquarters, all of which provide IP-related outreach, training, and opportunities for all Americans. Under Drew Hirshfeld’s leadership, the USPTO has solicited comments on key issues related to our IP ecosystem, worked to improve patent quality, and taken the first steps to implement the Trademark Modernization Act.
While progress has been made, there is much more to do.
We need to foster and harness more US innovation and improvements to existing and critical emerging technologies, especially in key areas like biotechnology, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, clean technologies, and semiconductors, to name a few. We need to meet people where they are and teach and incentivize innovation in our schools, universities, and communities and encourage the emergence of additional innovation hubs. We need to work to promote and protect more innovation in our companies and for US companies to invest more in US-based production. We need to create incentives to spur a new era of innovation, entrepreneurship, and creativity from every region of the Country and across gender, race, identity, socioeconomic class, and veteran status, as well as among all other groups that have been underserved and overlooked. Critically, we need to ensure we are incentivizing, protecting, and bringing to impact key innovations while minimizing inappropriate opportunistic behavior.
Innovation, incentivized by the protections our IP system provides, offers one of our greatest opportunities to create jobs, enhance our national security, and improve the welfare of all.
There are a number of important issues that require attention that affect various stakeholders, industries, and entities of varied sizes in different ways.
Though all these issues require attention, we must also be careful and deliberate. It is now time for me to hear directly from the skilled team at the USPTO and other stakeholders and begin to shape solutions that advance our shared objectives of promoting US innovation and competitiveness while deterring abuses and gamesmanship.
Finally, I want to thank Drew Hirshfeld for his invaluable service and leadership performing the functions and duties of the Director. Drew has kept the Agency moving in a steady, constructive, and positive direction during a very busy period. I am thrilled and grateful that he has graciously agreed to serve as acting Deputy Director before he departs government service this summer.
I invite all those who would like to share their thoughts and ideas to reach out, and an individual from my office will follow up with you.
I look forward to working with all stakeholders on the great challenges and opportunities before us.
Let’s get to work.
Kathi Vidal
Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office
