President Obama has not yet appointed a permanent successor to Kappos. Now that he has filled the position of Secretary of Commerce, however, he is expected to move quickly to appoint a new director – also known as the Under-Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property.
Rea is reported by Reuters to have emailed staff at the USPTO, telling them that she would resign “in the near future”.
She joined the Office in 2011 as deputy director after a career in private practice with Crowell & Moring. She has also worked as an in-house counsel after training as a pharmacist.
Rea told Managing IP at the Shanghai IP and Innovation Summit that she did not know when Obama is likely to announce his choice for Kappos’s successor, but that in the meantime the Office was “still on track and moving forward”.
