Women in Intellectual Property (IP) symposium series

Kathi Vidal serves as the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) – America’s Innovation Agency. 

As the chief executive of the USPTO, she leads one of the largest intellectual property (IP) offices in the world, with more than 13,000 employees and an annual budget of more than $4 billion. She is the principal IP advisor to the President and the Administration, through the Secretary of Commerce, and is focused on incentivizing and protecting U.S. innovation, entrepreneurship, and creativity. She leads an agency whose mission is to help American workers and businesses compete and collaborate, especially in ground-breaking technologies and across all demographics. As Director of the USPTO, Vidal is working to expand American innovation for and from all, and to bring more ideas to impact, including serving as the Vice Chair of the Council for Inclusive Innovation (CI2), alongside Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo and the Council members.

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Vaishali Udupa is the Commissioner for Patents of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). As Commissioner for Patents, Ms. Udupa 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.

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As Deputy Commissioner for Patents, Ms. Martin Wallace manages and leads the Patents organization’s efforts related to international IP harmonization and provides executive oversight over patent-examining functions in technology centers that examine in the technologies of communication, mechanical engineering, manufacturing, and medical devices and processes. Regarding international IP harmonization, she specifically provides executive leadership on international patent legal issues and various work sharing efforts with international partners.

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Sharon Israel is the Chief Policy Officer and Director for International Affairs at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In this position, she serves as a policy advisor to the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO and Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for IP and Deputy Director of the USPTO. She oversees the USPTO’s domestic and international policy matters related to intellectual property (IP) protection and enforcement and on IP-related trade issues, including proposed legislation and international activities of the U.S. She also oversees the Office of Policy and International Affairs’ (OPIA) education and training programs through the Global Intellectual Property Academy (GIPA); global advocacy initiatives through the IP Attaché Program; and economic analyses through the Office of the Chief Economist, among her many duties. 

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