I wonder who is running the USPTO now?

A month ago, former USPTO Director Kathi Vidal departed from the USPTO.

Some days ago, apparently Acting Director Derrick Brent quietly departed from the USPTO.

It seems that a few minutes after the inauguration of Donald Trump, on a day when the USPTO was closed due to federal holiday, a new Acting Director got sworn in at the USPTO.  It seems that the new Acting Director is a Coke Morgan Stewart.  You can read about her here, in an official bio that got posted on a day when the USPTO was closed due to federal holiday.

Conspicuously absent from her official bio at the USPTO is a mention of any technical background.  According to the USPTO’s Find a patent practitioner, she lacks a registration number.   My guess is that she has never written a patent application or prosecuted a US patent to issuance.  I would welcome the opportunity to be shown wrong about this.

6 Replies to “I wonder who is running the USPTO now?”

  1. Her LinkedIn profile (https://www.linkedin.com/in/cokemorganstewart/details/experience/) says that she graduated from Duke with a BA (doesn’t specify in what), then straight to law school at UVA. Then one year clerking at the Court of Federal Claims, three years as an associate at one firm, three years at another firm, a few years networking doing bar association stuff, then four years at another firm, then 10 years at the PTO starting in the solicitor’s office. A fair amount of patent litigation experience, apparently, but nothing to indicate a technical background and nothing whatsoever to suggest having ever prosecuted a single patent application.

  2. No evidence of prosecution or examination experience, or that she had any interactions with the examining corp beyond the high-level Acting Chief of Staff position.

  3. I noticed an Instagram post with a “welcome/congrats” message to “President Trump” and thought it was odd … I looked back at posts from Biden’s inauguration day, and I did not see a presidential welcome. Incongruous …

  4. Both Dennis Crouch at Patently-O and Gene Quinn at IP Watch seem to really like the appointment. Though not a registered patent attorney she handled a lot of patent litigation at O’Melveny , including 70 appeals before the Federal Circuit and is said to be “a strong supporter” of patent rights. Her dad was a judge in ED VA where he handled patent litigation in the old “rocket docket”. Seems like a good choice.

    1. If Dennis and Gene approve then I’m all for it. I subscribe to their newsletters and have learned so much through them all these years. I respect their points of view.

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