Tamara Foley is the Acting Director of the Office of Governmental Affairs at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Ms. Foley manages a team responsible for working within and across government to support the mission of the USPTO by monitoring congressional activity, analyzing legislative and policy proposals related to the USPTO and intellectual property (IP) issues, and facilitating communications with federal agencies as well as state and local government entities on IP policy and activities.
Ms. Foley has been with the Office of Governmental Affairs since 2017. Prior to serving as Acting Director, Ms. Foley served as the Deputy Director and as an attorney-advisor for the Office of Governmental Affairs. Ms. Foley has worked on numerous legislative and policy proposals related to patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and USPTO operations. She has also provided support to agency executives who have been called to testify before Congress.
Prior to joining the Office of Governmental Affairs, Ms. Foley was an attorney-advisor at the U.S. International Trade Commission in the Office of Administrative Law Judges, where she focused on section 337 investigations, and before that, she was an IP attorney in private practice.
Ms. Foley received a Master of Laws (LLM) in Intellectual Property from the George Washington University School of Law and a Juris Doctor from the University of San Diego School of Law. She received a Bachelor of Arts in history and international studies from Northwestern University.