USPTO has issued a press release, announcing the appointment of Michelle K. Lee as Deputy Director of the USPTO, beginning in January 13, 2014. Currently Lee is the Director of the USPTO’s Silicon Valley satellite office. The White House reportedly wanted to appoint Lee as the Director, but may have seen the Deputy position as less controversial. For the near future, Lee will be running the USPTO, and will be the most sophisticated person as regards technology to do so, at least in our memory. According to the USPTO Press Release:
Prior to joining the USPTO, Lee served as Deputy General Counsel for Google and was the company’s first Head of Patents and Patent Strategy. She also served as a partner at the Silicon Valley-based law firm of Fenwick & West, where she specialized in advising a wide range of high-technology clients from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies on all aspects of patent law, intellectual property, litigation and corporate matters. Prior to her career as a legal advisor to technology companies, Lee worked in the federal judiciary, serving as a law clerk for the Honorable Vaughn R. Walker on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and the Honorable Paul R. Michel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Before building her legal career, Lee worked as a computer scientist at Hewlett-Packard Research Laboratories, as well as at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. She holds a B.S. and an M.S. in electrical engineering and computer science from M.I.T., as well as a J.D. from Stanford Law School.
Here are some reactions:
Rep. Mike Honda, Representing Silicon Valley in the U.S. House of Representatives. @RepMikeHonda Congrats to Michelle Lee for being appointed @uspto Deputy Director! I was pleased to support her for this position
Judy Chu @RepJudyChu Another top notch appointment by @BarackObama. Congrats to Michelle Lee on becoming Dep. Dir of @USPTO!
@IAM magazine “It would be a neat trick to make Michelle Lee deputy USPTO director, knowing she would in effect be in charge but not needing confirmation.”
Patent Prediction @patentpredict #Google alum Michelle Lee appointed to lead #USPTO. Starts in Jan 2014. Prediction: heads exploding in Redmond @ #MSFT and @ #AAPL
Amber Halteman: Good news in #patent and #trademarks!
Quentin Palfrey @qpalfrey Great pick!
IAM magazine @IAM_magazine There will be a lot of arched eyebrows in the US tech community today with the news of Michelle Lee’s appointment as USPTO Deputy Director.
Mike Honda @mikehonda17 Great news!
Manny Schecter, Chief Patent Counsel, IBM. @MannySchecter Real question now: whether Michelle Lee is to eventually become the actual #USPTO Director, or whether another will be nominated for same
Dan Levine, Reuters legal reporter on the West Coast. @FedcourtJunkie Former Google exec Michelle Lee takes over the USPTO as interim chief. Looks like it’s her job to lose
IAM magazine @IAM_magazine Ex-Google IP chief Michelle Lee to be USPTO deputy director. That means she is actually in charge until a new permanent director is found.
Fil @recifs @jamie_love will be interesting to see how google’s approach to “defensive” patent plays out…
Rachel Payne, inventor, startup entrepreneur, tech executive @rachelpayne This is exactly the kind of USTPO leadership we need – to drive innovation, IP protection and economic growth!
Michael Loney, Americas editor @managingIP “Lee’s appointment does have a genuine statutory problem”.
Mallun Yen, cofounder, presdnt of ChIPs, @mallunCongrats to our ChIPs co-founder Michelle Lee on her appt as Depty Comsnr of USPTO!
Eric @irreverent @danravicher uspto ran by former IBM exec. was there special treatment given to IBM during his watch? Lee has tread lightly here
Karen Canady, Patent attorney specializing in biotechnology patent prosecution @karencanady Pleased to see Michelle Lee appointed as Deputy Director of USPTO.
News Articles, Blogs
Al Kamen, Washington Post (November 11)
Lee has been a leading advocate of reform to battle frivolous lawsuits by “patent trolls.”
Dennis Crouch. Michelle Lee, Acting as Director but not “Acting Director”, Patentlyo.Com Dec 11, 2013
In the past, Lee has worked closely with Colleen Chien who is now spearheading the White House patent initiatives. Lee is seen as an effective manager and a visionary willing to take on major challenges. Like Kappos, I have always found Lee to be open and ready to hear and respond to reasoned input. There is some trepidation (or enthusiasm, depending upon your perspective) that she will strongly advocate Google’s anti-patent stance. I suspect, however, that the result will be pushing for higher quality examination that better ensures clarity. Congratulations to Michelle Lee!
Diane Bartz, Former Google executive to run U.S. patent office. Reuters. December 11, 2013
Lee said she planned to attack the backlog of unexamined patents and work to improve patent quality, an issue at the center of the ongoing debate over frivolous infringement lawsuits.
Google has been in the fight against “patent assertion entities” which buy or license patents and sue companies for infringement, but Lee said she would be even-handed in handling disputes.
“None of the policy positions of my former employers has guided my work,” she said. “I certainly would be very welcoming of everybody’s input.”