This is an archived page. Drew Hirshfeld was the Acting Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Acting Deputy Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office until June 2022. View a current list of USPTO executives and their biographies on the Executive Leadership page.
Drew Hirshfeld is acting Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and acting Deputy Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), supporting the Office of the Under Secretary and the USPTO on a wide variety of legal, policy, and operational matters.
Named one of Managing IP’s Top 50 Most Influential People in IP in 2021, Hirshfeld previously performed the functions and duties of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO from January 2021 to April 2022. He led the agency’s response to the June 2021 Arthrex Supreme Court decision by implementing an interim Director review process that could be initiated sua sponte or by request from a party to a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) proceeding, oversaw the implementation of the Trademark Modernization Act, and expanded the agency’s education and outreach programming to a wider variety of audiences, among other notable accomplishments. Hirshfeld also serves as a member of the Precedential Opinion Panel (POP) deciding issues of exceptional importance to the PTAB.
Before leading the agency, Hirshfeld served as Commissioner for Patents from 2015 to 2021. During that time, he successfully managed efforts to ensure the consistency and reliability of patent grants, led a historic reorganization of the Patents division to better serve stakeholders, and implemented policies that provided all patent examiners with guidance and training to efficiently and effectively conduct quality examinations.
Prior to serving as Commissioner, Hirshfeld held the positions of Deputy Commissioner for Patent Examination Policy and Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO. He began his career in 1994 as a patent examiner and became a supervisory patent examiner in 2001. He was promoted to the Senior Executive Service in 2008 as a Group Director in Technology Center 2100.
Hirshfeld received a Bachelor of Science from the University of Vermont and a J.D. from Western New England College School of Law.