As Regional Director of the USPTO’s Western Regional Outreach Office, Mary Fuller carries out the strategic direction of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO and is responsible for leading the USPTO's Western Office in San Jose, California. Focusing on the region and actively engaging with the community, Ms. Fuller ensures the USPTO’s initiatives and programs are tailored to the region's unique ecosystem of industries and stakeholders.
Ms. Fuller began her career in Silicon Valley as a patent attorney at law firms, including Pennie & Edmonds, Carr & Ferrell, and Bingham McCutchen. Later she joined Santa Clara-based Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. as a senior patent litigation attorney, rising to become Director and Managing Counsel for Litigation. She then served as Managing Director and Associate General Counsel at Maxim Integrated Products as the company’s first Chief IP Counsel. She later became General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Adaptive Spectrum and Signal Alignment, and after that, served as Vice President, Chief Policy Officer and Head of Legal at Kudelski Intellectual Property and Innovation.
In 2022, Ms. Fuller served as the first Head of Legal at Jupiter Intelligence. In 2018, with decades of experience as an engineer, patent attorney, general counsel and corporate advisor, Ms. Fuller founded Fuller Tech Law to provide intellectual property and fractional general counsel services for growth-minded technology companies.
Additionally, since 2018, Ms. Fuller has taught in the Entrepreneurs Law Clinic of Santa Clara University’s School of Law in roles including adjunct professor, and from 2020-2022, Senior Clinical Fellow.
Since 1998, Ms. Fuller has been a member of the San Francisco Bay Area IP Inn of Court. She served as an officer of the Inn from 2004-2012, and from 2010-2012 was elected as its first female president. Ms. Fuller has also been active in Upward (previously Hipower), ChIPs, and The Club Silicon Valley.
Additionally, Ms. Fuller received Watermark’s Emerging Leader Award in 2015, was recognized as one of Silicon Valley Business Journal’s 100 Women of Influence in 2020, and she received the Northern Arizona University President’s Alumni Award for the College of Engineering, Informatics, and Applied Sciences in 2022.
Ms. Fuller graduated from Northern Arizona University with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in electrical engineering. After working at Hewlett-Packard as an engineer, she earned her Juris Doctor, graduating cum laude from the University of Notre Dame Law School.