David Kappos was sworn in as the new Administrator of the PTO this month. As Administrator, he will be the chief executive officer of the agency and in charge of the PTO’s several thousand employees, including patent and trademark examiners. Mr. Kappos has spent his career as in-house patent counsel to IBM, the single largest generator of patent applications and patents in the United States.
The PTO faces several difficult issues, including a sharp drop in the number of patent applications and the resulting drop in revenue to the agency, coupled with a backlog of over 770,000 applications. awaiting review.
— Robert J. Yarbrough, Esq.