Andrew I. Faile

Deputy Commissioner for Patents

Andrew Faile performed the functions and duties as the acting Commissioner of Patents of the USPTO until December 2022. View a current list of USPTO executives and their biographies on the Executive committee webpage.

Andrew I. Faile is Acting Commissioner for Patents, where he manages and leads the Patents organization as its chief operating officer.

Mr. Faile's permanent role is Deputy Commissioner for Patents, where he is responsible for managing and leading the Patent Business Unit’s Workforce Management, Financial Management, and Planning and Data Analysis divisions, providing business unit executive leadership for workforce management matters, financial management oversight and planning, as well as data analytics. Mr. Faile also provides executive oversight over patent-examining functions in technology centers that examine in the technologies of computer architecture and software, networking, multiplexing, cable, and security, as well as the Project Management Office.

Mr. Faile has more than 30 years of experience in patent examining and operations management.  He was previously the Deputy Commissioner for Patent Operations and, prior to becoming a Deputy Commissioner, served as the Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Patent Operations for the electrical discipline.  Most recently, as the Deputy Commissioner for Patent Operations, Mr. Faile was responsible for overseeing historic changes implemented in Fiscal Year 2021 that provide updates to patent examination time, application routing, and the patent examiner performance appraisal plan.  He also led the oversight and coordination of the examining corps to achieve focal pendency goals in Fiscal Years 2019 and 2020.

Mr. Faile first joined the USPTO in 1989 as a patent examiner in the areas of cellular telephony, radio frequency communications, and cable television. In 1994, he earned an examiner master’s rating in telecommunications. He was awarded the Department of Commerce Silver Medal for his work on a joint management/union task force in charge of modernizing the examiner production system, and in 2014 was awarded the Presidential Meritorious Rank Award.