New USPTO Director Nominee

Written by Ben Esplin

John A. Squires

Recently, the Senate voted to confirm Howard Lutnick as Secretary of Commerce. Commerce has a wide coverage, including housing the USPTO. It is being reported that Lutnick, who is named as an inventor on over 400 U.S. Patents, has settled on a nominee for the next USPTO Director.

Dana Kass at Law360 is reporting that nominee is John A. Squires, currently a partner at Dilworth Paxson and former chief IP counsel at Goldman Sachs. According to his firm bio, “[h]e co-founded, launched, and sits on the board of numerous IP and risk-related businesses, including Regulatory DataCorp, the Risk Assistance Network + Exchange (RANE), and FinClusive.”

One thing is clear, Mr. Squires has firsthand experience in the marketplace for intellectual property rights in the technology industry that is almost unparalleled. It will be interesting to see if, or how, his leadership impacts the USPTO.