Promote the Progress

Hal Wegner reported earlier this week that a selection has been made for the next Under Secretary for Intellectual Property/Director of the Patent and Trademark Office and that the vetting process had begun. Barring any hiccups, an announcement can be expected this week.

Speculation as to the identity of the next Under Secretary is, not surprisingly, running wild. Three individuals – Q. Todd Dickinson, David Kappos, and James Pooley – have been the subject of attention for months now, and a new name – Mike Kirk – was thrust into the ring just last week.

Picking a candidate in this time of turmoil seems an impossible task. There is no shortage of candidates with academic and professional qualifications that are beyond question – each of the favorite candidates above fit into this category.

But, at this critical time, the Office and the patent community desperately need a Director that brings more than merely the right resume. The unprecedented state of disarray in which the Office is operating requires a candidate that brings intangible character traits that aren’t necessarily born from having attended the right school, having worked at the right firm, or having led the Office in the past.

We need a fresh face that, simply by being nominated, sends a signal to all Office stakeholders that a period of healing is set to begin. We need someone that, from day one, instills confidence in all stakeholders that the Office is committed to restoring the sense of partnership that has been destroyed in recent years. We need someone that is willing to try new approaches to old problems while respecting the Office’s role in protecting inventor’s rights. We need someone that values administrative efficiency, but that is not willing to compromise those rights in pursuing it. We need someone that embraces a goal of complete transparency and marries it with the Office’s statutory duty to “disseminat[e] to the public information with respect to patents and trademarks.”

The position is, without doubt, more challenging than it has ever been before and the new Under Secretary stands to inherit an incredible mess. No matter the selection, I firmly believe that the community stands ready to assist the new Director in unravelling everything and setting the Office and the system back on the right track.

Tags: USPTO

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 at 11:16 am and is filed under USPTO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.