Patent Law

David Freeland, CIO at USPTO, leaving

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

On 22 February 2005, one had the release:

Jon Dudas, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the Commerce Department?s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), today administered the oath of office to David J. Freeland, the USPTO?s new Chief Information Officer.

?I am delighted to welcome David Freeland to our senior management team,? Under Secretary Dudas said. ?The position of Chief Information Officer is vital to meeting the major goals of our 21st Century Strategic Plan?effectively using electronic tools to support the processing of high quality and timely patents and trademarks. I am confident that David has the experience and leadership we need to realize our objectives.?

Patently-O had reported on 20 Dec. 2004:

The position of CIO is critical for the PTO as the office is undergoing a transfer to a paperless office. Doug Bourgeois, Freeland's immediate predecessor, is credited with initiating the move to electronic format:

LINK: If it weren't for Doug Bourgeois, his colleagues say, patent examiners would still be examining paper submissions as they had for 200 years.

See previous IPBiz post on Bourgeois.

Full post as published by IPBiz on April 25, 2008 (boomark / email).