Kathi Vidal serves as the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). As chief executive, she leads one of the largest intellectual property (IP) offices in the world – a $4.2B operation with over 13,500 employees located across the 50 states and Puerto Rico – underpinning more than $8 trillion in IP-intensive economic activity annually in the United States. As a Senate-confirmed appointee, she is the principal IP advisor to the President and Administration, through the Secretary of Commerce.
Director Vidal has advanced an ambitious global agenda to bolster U.S. innovation and economic security by strengthening IP ecosystems. She successfully defends IP vigorously both nationally and through international initiatives and treaties, advocating for data-driven, balanced approaches to national and global challenges. Through her leadership, the USPTO has successfully impacted policies, regulations and legislation in other countries and multilaterally to support U.S. companies and innovation and to reduce barriers for global IP protection. She works with Congress and in the courts, including the Federal Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court, to advance clear laws that incentivize and protect U.S. innovation.
Through the Artificial Intelligence (AI) – Emerging Technology (ET) Partnership founded under her leadership, she is working to incentivize AI-enabled innovation while ensuring AI does not “lock up” innovation. Through her work, the USPTO has released groundbreaking new guidance on the patentability of AI-assisted inventions and key guidance on the patent eligibility of AI inventions and is advancing additional AI policy. She has also worked across government and internationally to bring more balance to standard essential patents and to strengthen U.S. leadership in global standards. Director Vidal has been listed as one of the top 50 Women in AI and has been featured in Forbes, Fortune, TechCrunch and many IP trade publications for her expertise in AI and innovation policy.
Director Vidal led a multi-year effort to improve USPTO operations. She has revamped hiring and promotion practices, created the first ever agency-wide DEIA committee, and fostered a culture of opportunity for all, resulting in a 5% increase in the diversity of the USPTO leadership in the last year alone. Through her leadership, the USPTO introduced key process changes that improved employee experience while dramatically reducing trademark pendency and setting the course for similar reductions for patents. She also successfully expanded the use of AI by the agency and advanced the first pay increase in 15 years for patent examiners, classifiers, attorneys, and administration. The USPTO was recently named among the Top 50 Inspiring Workplaces in North America, the second-most inspiring workplace among government and nonprofit organizations in North America, and among the Top 100 Inspiring Workplaces in the world by the Inspiring Workplaces Group.
Alongside Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo, Director Vidal serves as the Vice Chair of the Council for Inclusive Innovation (CI2), which created the first-ever National Strategy for Inclusive Innovation. She is a co-chair of the Economic Development Administration’s National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE), which created the first-ever National Entrepreneurship Strategy. She and Secretary Raimondo launched the Women’s Entrepreneurship (WE) initiative, and Director Vidal founded Entrepreneurship Essentials for the Military Community. She also expanded patent and trademark resources in libraries across the country and free legal services for patent applicants increasing the participation by women and other underrepresented populations to unprecedented rates. She has scaled up the USPTO’s childhood and K-12 education programming, introduced groundbreaking tools to identify IP and assist teachers, and has made permanent the USPTO’s outreach efforts through the creation of the Office of Public Engagement.
Recognizing the lack of diversity in the IP profession, Director Vidal expanded the patent bar, created a design patent bar, and expanded the criteria to practice before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
She has received dozens of awards for her leadership and litigation skills and was named one of Managing IP’s top 50 most influential people in IP (globally) in 2022 and 2023, as well as an inductee into the Chiefs in Intellectual Property (ChIP) Hall of Fame.
Director Vidal holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Binghamton University, a Master of Science in electrical engineering from Syracuse University, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania where she was Editor-in-Chief of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. She started her career at General Electric (GE) Aerospace (later Lockheed Martin) as a systems engineer (hardware and software). She graduated from GE’s Edison Engineering Program and designed one of the first AI systems for aircraft, as well as aircraft and engine-control systems that continue to keep our military safe today.
Prior to joining the USPTO, Director Vidal led a litigation group of 270 attorneys at Fish & Richardson P.C., serving on the firm’s Management Committee, and was Managing Partner of Winston & Strawn LLP’s Silicon Valley office, serving on the firm’s Executive Committee. Prior to that she clerked for Judge Alvin Anthony Schall on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Throughout her career, Director Vidal has represented new innovators, startup companies, and many of our country’s most successful and well-known companies.
She grew up in a military family and was the only one from her class on the base in the Azores (Portugal) to graduate from college. Director Vidal lives with her family and rescue dogs, Oliver and Jack.
Find the latest posts from Director Vidal on the USPTO Director's Blog, and keep up with all of the USPTO’s accomplishments under her leadership.