Lee urges lawyers to volunteer for new USPTO initiatives
Managing IP is part of the Delinian Group, Delinian Limited, 4 Bouverie Street, London, EC4Y 8AX, Registered in England & Wales, Company number 00954730
Copyright © Delinian Limited and its affiliated companies 2024

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

Lee urges lawyers to volunteer for new USPTO initiatives

USPTO deputy director Michelle Lee spoke of the agency’s latest initiatives to improve the US patent system during a keynote speech at Managing IP’s US Patent Forum 2014

michelle-lee-keynote-speech-pic.jpg

Lee urged lawyers at Tuesday’s event in Washington, DC to volunteer for pro-bono positions created by three new executive actions announced by President Obama last month.

She hopes the initiatives will reduce the “red tape, delay and frivolous litigation” that hampers innovation.

The White House plans to expand ways to crowdsource prior art, offer more robust technical training to examiners and offer pro bono and pro se assistance to inventors struggling to pay for legal representation.

To help these efforts, the USPTO is asking technical experts to volunteer to deliver presentations to examiners to improve their understanding of different types of technology. The agency is also looking for volunteers from the IP bar to provide pro bono advice to individuals and small businesses.

Lee, who replaced Teresa Stanek Rea as deputy director of the USPTO in December 2013, said the office has “made great progress” on five executive actions announced by President Obama in June, along with seven legislative recommendations.

She also spoke of the impact patents had on her family and career motivations.

“My father was an engineer and so were all the other fathers I knew growing up in Silicon Valley,” said Lee. “I wanted to contribute and enable others to contribute to innovation.”

As a result, she became a programmer for HP before joining Fenwick & West. She went on to work for Google, which had “a handful of patents” at the time. Lee spent nine years with the search engine company, where she ended up as head of patents and patent strategy.

She left Google in May 2012 to become director of the USPTO’s Silicon Valley office before being appointed to lead the agency.

more from across site and ros bottom lb

More from across our site

A 36-member team from Zhong Lun Law Firm, including six partners, will join the newly formed East IP Group
The Delhi High Court sided with Ericsson against Indian smartphone maker Lava, bringing the companies' nine-year dispute to a close
We provide a rundown of Managing IP’s news and analysis from the week, and review what’s been happening elsewhere in IP
Tennessee has passed the ELVIS Act, a law that fights against AI models that mimic the voice and likeness of music artists
Rob Stien, chief communications and public policy officer at InterDigital, says the EU has forgotten innovators while trying to solve an issue that doesn’t exist
As Australia’s Qantm IP leans towards being acquired by a private equity company, sources discuss what it could mean for IP firms
Law firms that are conscious of their role in society are more likely to win work, according to a survey of over 23,000 in-house professionals
Nghiem Xuan Bac Pham, managing partner of Vision & Associates, discusses opportunities created by the US-China rift as well as profitability issues facing IP practices
Douglas Leite and two of his colleagues were intrigued by Bhering Advogados’s mission to grow its patent litigation practice
Each week Managing IP speaks to a different IP practitioner about their life and career
Gift this article