Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Intellectual Property Law Blogs -> Two-Seventy-One Patent Blog

Intellectual Property Law

: Two-Seventy-One Patent Blog

"Senior Management Changes" at the USPTO; Doll Retires

By Peter Zura

Today the PTO announced that, after 35 years at the USPTO, Commissioner for Patents John Doll has intends to retire from the agency on October 2, 2009. As a result, David Kappos has nominated longtime USPTO executive Robert (?Bob?) Stoll to the position of Commissioner for Patents, and has named Margaret (?Peggy?) Focarino Deputy Commissioner for Patents.

It is expected that U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke will appoint Stoll after Doll?s retirement becomes official. The Commissioner appointment is for a term of five years.

It is not certain how Doll's retirement will affect the ongoing continuation rules litigation (Tafas v. Doll), but it certainly won't help the PTO's case at this point.

See Stoll's biography here (link)

See Focarino's biography here (link)

Read the PTO announcement in its entirety here (link)

Full post as published by Two-Seventy-One Patent Blog on September 03, 2009 (boomark / email).