President Donald Trump has nominated Dilworth Paxson partner John A. Squires to serve as the director of the US Patent and Trademark Office and under secretary of Commerce for intellectual property, the White House announced Tuesday.
Squires’ practice focuses on intellectual property, AI, blockchain, and fintech cybersecurity, according to the firm’s website.
He previously worked as chief intellectual property counsel for
“Patent examination quality issues, predatory patent assertions, and litigation abuse have precluded continued progress and efficiencies in bettering the U.S. financial system,” he said at the 2007 hearing, adding that the law was needed to “forestall blatant forum shopping and litigation abuse.”
Squires also helped Goldman Sachs and a video-gaming client apply for patents related to cryptocurrency and digital currency technology, according to a 2018 Bloomberg Law interview about patenting blockchain technology. In January, Bloomberg News reported Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s now-former company, Cantor Fitzgerald LP, holds most of the US Treasury bonds that back controversial crypto company Tether.
Squires previously spent more than four years as an IP partner at Perkins Coie LLP, where he worked to create a $4 billion fund for Fortress Investment Group that backs intellectual property lawsuits, according to since-deleted language in his LinkedIn biography. Fortress claims to be the world’s largest institutional investor in patent litigation. The reference to Fortress was removed as of Feb. 19.
If confirmed, Squires would succeed Biden administration director Kathi Vidal, now a partner at Winston & Strawn. Andrei Iancu, a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, led the PTO during Trump’s first term.
Coke Morgan Stewart was sworn in as the deputy director of the PTO on Jan. 20 and serves as the acting director.
The agency is navigating Trump’s executive order calling for all federal staff to report to work sites full time. In 2023, 95.8% of the PTO’s 13,452 employees teleworked, according to agency data. Administrative patent judges at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, a tribunal that reviews the validity of existing patents, were told on Feb. 4 they could be expected to return to office as soon as Feb. 24, which IP attorneys said could lead to staffing problems and dysfunction.
News of Squires’ selection comes less than a month after Lutnick, a prolific inventor, was confirmed Feb. 18 as secretary of the US Commerce Department, the agency overseeing the patent office. He vowed to reduce the backlog of patent applications and end what he called China’s abuse of the agency during his Jan. 29 confirmation hearing.
Source: news.bloomberglaw.com
