Mary Fuller appointed regional director of USPTO’s Silicon Valley Regional Office

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today announced the appointment of Mary Fuller as Regional Director of the USPTO’s Silicon Valley Regional Office (SVRO) in San Jose, California. The SVRO serves budding and current inventors and entrepreneurs in the Western Region, including Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.

As Regional Director, Fuller will carry out the strategic direction of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO and ensure the USPTO’s initiatives and programs are tailored to the region's unique ecosystem of industries and stakeholders. Specifically, Fuller will lead the region’s outreach efforts to expand our nation’s innovation ecosystem, and serve the area’s nearly 70,000 patent holders and 500,000+ trademark registrants, thereby helping to fuel the region’s local industries and economies.

“With decades of experience as an engineer, patent attorney, general counsel, educator, and corporate advisor, Mary will help the USPTO spur innovation across the nation’s Western Region,” said Kathi Vidal, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO. “As we lean more into strengthening and expanding our outreach efforts across the agency to reach more Americans from rural and historically underrepresented communities, I’m thrilled Mary will be leading the team to help these innovators—from small business owners and inventors in Alaska to California and Hawaii—demystify the patent and trademark application and registration processes and bring their ideas to commercial success.”

“I couldn’t be more thrilled to be joining the USPTO as Regional Director of the Silicon Valley Regional Office,” said Mary Fuller. “It feels like my path has led me to this position, and I am eager to hit the ground running in service to the Western Region’s innovation communities and to connecting more aspiring problem-solvers and local entrepreneurs with government resources to help them build value and power success.”

Prior to joining the USPTO, Fuller served as Head of Legal at Jupiter Intelligence, Inc., a startup company in the climate risk data space, and as a Senior Clinical Fellow and adjunct professor in Santa Clara University School of Law’s Entrepreneurs’ Law Clinic and Entrepreneurs’ Legal Advising Clinic, where students provided pro-bono legal services to startups and entrepreneurs. She began her career in Silicon Valley as a patent attorney at various law firms before joining 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 top IP attorney. She later became General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Adaptive Spectrum and Signal Alignment (“ASSIA”), and served as Vice President, Chief Policy Officer and Head of Legal at Kudelski Intellectual Property and Innovation.

Fuller will assume her new role upon her swearing in at the USPTO’s San Jose, California office on Monday, September 25. The USPTO’s Steve Koziol, who has been in the Acting Regional Director role since 2022, will resume his responsibilities as Managing Assistant Regional Director.

“I can’t thank Steve enough for his incredible work and willingness to serve during this period of transition, and I’m looking forward to what this great team will do together,” continued Director Vidal.

The USPTO operates a headquarters and Eastern Regional Outreach Office in Alexandria, Virginia, and four additional regional offices across the nation. Combined, these offices provide inventors, entrepreneurs, and small businesses with a USPTO presence in every continental U.S. time zone. Staff in our offices work closely with intellectual property practitioners and services, startups, and job-growth accelerators. They also collaborate with local science, technology, engineering and mathematics organizations on outreach and educational programing. Additionally, we operate a network of more than 80 Patent and Trademark Resource Centers (PTRCs) in 45 states, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. PTRCs are public, state, and academic libraries designated by the USPTO to support the public with key patent and trademark resources, including search.

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