Robin Evans is the Acting Commissioner for Patents of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). As Acting Commissioner for Patents, Ms. Evans manages and leads the Patents organization as its chief operating officer. She oversees the agency’s 10,000 Patents employees, including more than 9,000 patent examiners responsible for fostering the country’s innovation system by providing patent protections to inventors as stated in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution.
Prior to her acting role, Ms. Evans provided executive leadership to quality related offices in charge of training, statistics, process improvement, and stakeholder outreach. She also provided executive oversight over patent-examining functions in technology centers that examine in the technologies of biotechnology, organic chemistry, transportation, construction, agriculture, electronic commerce, and national security.
Ms. Evans began her career at the USPTO as a patent examiner focused on applications in the mechanical area. She served as a supervisory patent examiner in the areas of electrical heating technology and the fluid handling technologies. She also served as a management quality assurance specialist in related fields.
Ms. Evans was selected as the first regional manager of the first USPTO regional office in Detroit, Michigan. She was then appointed to the Senior Executive Service as a director of Technology Center 2800. Shortly after being appointed, Ms. Evans served as the interim director of the Rocky Mountain Regional Office in Denver, Colorado. Prior to her present role, Ms. Evans served as Acting Associate Commissioner for Patent Quality.
Ms. Evans holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland.