USPTO Director Announces Resignation

By Kevin E. Noonan --

As has been expected, the Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the Honorable Kathi Vidal, has announced her resignation.  Deputy Director Derrick Brent will assume her position (at least temporarily) starting in the second week of December.

As Director, Ms. Vidal (at right) has been involved in a variety of efforts unlikely to survive the change in administration and her letter exhibits her awareness of these changing tides.  Her announcement relates her intentions to go back to the private sector.

Regarding her tenure, Ms. Vidal provides praise for the PTO workforce and called the Office during her tenure an "agency of opportunity."  While citing a number of the Office's accomplishments while she was Director she expressly calls out the agency's Strategic Plan Accomplishments Page, the National Strategy for Inclusive Innovation, and National Entrepreneurship Strategy and creation of "the new Office of Public Engagement."  The Office's continuing mission, she states, is "to drive U.S. innovation, inclusive capitalism, and global competitiveness for the benefit of all Americans," and calls for a peaceful and orderly transition" of administrations.

The message itself is set forth below, including her personal e-mail address.

Message to my USPTO friends and colleagues:

It has been an honor and a true joy to be with you on our collective journey these last few years.  Together we have transformed the USPTO.  We have executed on our mission to proactively defend and promote strong intellectual property to lift communities, create better jobs, and foster the American innovative spirit in everyone.  And we have been successful because of our commitment to putting employees first.

Though our work is not done, it is time for me to turn the reins over to Deputy Director Derrick Brent, who has worked alongside me every step of the way.  My last day at the USPTO will be in the second week of December.  I will be moving back into the private sector and working with individuals and companies directly, committed to our same mission.

Know that the work we have done—from weaving employee experience and inclusion into the fabric of our operations, to focusing on the USPTO as not only America's Innovation Agency but as an agency of opportunity—will persist.

Thank you for your dedication, service, and support of one another.  You have challenged me, and each other, to be better.  And you have showed up every day with ingenuity and thoughtfulness to meet that challenge!  You are not only some of the most skilled and innovative people I've ever worked with, you are my friends and treasured colleagues, and I will be forever grateful for your work, which powers our communities and country.

Our record of accomplishments during the Biden-Harris Administration is unprecedented (Strategic Plan Accomplishments Page).  Together we pointed the USPTO in a new direction focused on employees and customers.  We united under the mission to drive U.S. innovation, inclusive capitalism, and global competitiveness for the benefit of all Americans.  We sat at the table with our union representatives to enshrine our people-first approach into updated collective bargaining agreements for Patents and Trademarks employees, and for support staff to come.  And we created the new Office of Public Engagement to expand and strengthen our outreach.  I am very proud of the amazing progress we've made together.

We would not have gotten this far without the strength of our people at the USPTO.  We have developed processes, procedures, and policies to improve the employee experience and inclusion.  Thousands of you contributed to those changes through my small listening sessions, with questions and ideas in the employee portal, and in conversations at events.  And as a result, we were named one of the most inspiring places to work in government this year.  That is an accolade I know I am very proud of and that agency leadership is committed to maintaining.

As we approach the end of the Biden-Harris Administration, please keep up the good work and continue to execute on our mission for innovators and creators.  And please stand ready to work with the incoming administration's team.  As President Biden said last week, the American people deserve a peaceful and orderly transition.

Even though I will be moving on in the next few weeks, I am committed to finding new ways to work alongside and support you, including founding a new ChIPs USPTO chapter, working to foster our alumni network that we launched here together, supporting you through the Patent and Trademark Office Society and the American Association of Patent Judges, advancing our National Strategy for Inclusive Innovation and National Entrepreneurship Strategy, and so much more!

I will remain a click away at [email protected] and will see you on socials.

With gratitude,

Kathi

Comments

[examiner]

Of the 4 directors I have served under, she was by far the worst. Among many faults, her incessant focus on DEI nonsense was a giant waste of time and resources. Glad to see her leave, but skeptical the next director will be much better

[Dan Feigelson]

On her watch, we have been subjected to, inter alia, the absurd "docx filing" program, the destruction of PAIR, EFS and the patent assignment filing software, and their replacement with the lousy "Patent Center" and "Assignment Center", both developed without input (and with deliberate ignoring of) input from actual users. She imposed the "tell us where you sleep at night" rule for TM filers. And as a going-away present, she's raising fees for later-filed continuations (how about punishing intransigent examiners instead?), and destroying the trademark filing software as well. (Last week's notice about that new TM software mentioned that it has been optimized for mobile devices. I know of no attorney or firm who files TM applications or prosecution papers on his phone.)

"And we have been successful because of our commitment to putting employees first...We would not have gotten this far without the strength of our people at the USPTO. We have developed processes, procedures, and policies to improve the employee experience and inclusion." I notice that "employee competence" is missing from that list. She certainly didn't pay attention to the people that the PTO is meant to serve.

"inclusive capitalism" - what on earth is that?

She will not be missed.

[max hensley]

"Office of Public Engagement". So that's new. Again, sounds buzzy and positive. What it really means is "more bureaucrats to tell you how great you should feel about us turning management over to the union." Any PR piece that uses "inclusive" or "inclusion" was written to laud DEI in mind. Such places will need a thorough housecleaning. It's been 25 years since I retired from the mess Congress and SCOTUS has made of patent law. Glad to be gone, but I do remember with nostalgic fondness my start right out of college in 1969 at $8,000 per year and a culture of young guys (yes, no women, practically) that resembled Frat 2.0.