Brad Watts, minority chief counsel of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, is joining the US Chamber of Commerce this week, two sources told Managing IP.
Watts, who advised Republican senator Thom Tillis, joins the chamber’s Global Innovation Policy Center and replaces Frank Cullen, the former executive director of US IP policy at the centre.
The centre aims to champion innovation and creativity through IP standards. It seeks to bring IP stakeholders together and provide an authoritative business voice on innovation policy.
His last day in Tillis's office was Friday, December 9.
During Watts’s time at the Senate, Congress passed the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act, the Trademark Modernization Act, and the Protecting Lawful Streaming Act.
Under Watts’s tenure, Tillis introduced the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act this year, which tackled subject matter eligibility set out in Section 101 under Title 35 of the US Code.
Tillis was recently recognised as one of the top 50 most influential people in IP in 2022 by Managing IP.
