Vidal Aimed to Put USPTO Rulemaking in the Spotlight

On November 12, after serving a little over two and a half years, Kathi Vidal announced her resignation as director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The director will be heading back to her former firm, Winston & Strawn LLP. Deputy Director Derrick Brent will take over starting the week of December 16, presumably until the next administration names a leader.

Vidal took on more than 60 Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) cases from either petitions or sua sponte reviews during her tenure, including handling sanctions in a pair of highly controversial inter partes reviews she found were filed in an effort to extort a high-dollar deal from other parties involved in the proceedings. In October 2022, Vidal sanctioned newly formed companies OpenSky Industries and Patent Quality Assurance LLC for filing IPRs in bad faith. Sterne Kessler Director and Co-Chair of the firm’s PTAB Practice Jason Fitzsimmons commented “Director Vidal took seriously that charge from the Supreme Court,” he continued, “the goal was to provide clarity and predictability on issues of law that were of importance to the parties.”

Regarding Vidal’s rulemaking, Fitzsimmons stated “she worked to provide that clarity to litigants so you knew more [of] what to expect in certain factual situations.”