Russell Slifer Image

Russell Slifer

Former Deputy Director of the USPTO; Principal

Schwegman, Lundberg & Woesner

Russ Slifer is a Principal at Schwegman Lundberg & Woesner, where his practice has focused on intellectual property law since 1994, helping a wide variety of clients build patent portfolios to help protect their innovations, including individual inventors, universities, and Fortune 100 companies.

Russ served as the Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office under the Obama Administration. As Deputy Director, Russ managed all day-to-day operations of the USPTO. He was also the first Director of the Rocky Mountain Region Patent Office, prior to his appointment as Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce, serving as the agency’s primary liaison with the innovation community in the Rocky Mountain Region.

Prior to his government service, Russ was the Chief Patent Counsel for Micron Technology where he managed a very large patent portfolio. Russ started his professional career as a design engineer for Honeywell.

Recent Articles by Russell Slifer

It’s Time to Address ‘Patent Mercenaries’—and the USPTO Already Has the Tools

In response to intense lobbying for patent litigation reform, Congress was convinced that a substantial amount of district court patent litigation involved “poor quality” patents that were clearly invalid. Images of extortionist patent trolls were widely portrayed as a primary threat to U.S. innovation. The high cost of patent litigation, years to reach a judicial resolution and reliance on lay juries to determine highly technical issues were cited as evidence of a broken system. In response, Congress passed the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) in 2011…. The current IPR system as implemented has caused severe damage to an important segment of our innovation community. Congress instructed the USPTO Director, in 35 USC§ 316(b), to “consider the effect of any such regulation on the economy, the integrity of the patent system, the efficient administration of the Office, and the ability of the Office to timely complete proceedings instituted under this chapter.” It is time for the Director to reevaluate the effect of IPRs.

Biden is Missing an Opportunity at the USPTO

Intellectual property (IP) made modern vaccines possible. It took billions of dollars in private and public investments in research and development to be able to create, in record time, multiple viable vaccines to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The entire world should be celebrating the innovators that continue to push forward with new solutions to problems we will face in the future. This pandemic will end, but there will be another. We should be eternally grateful to have companies like Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson that have the capability to create and manufacture vaccines at large scale…. It has been over four months since President Biden’s inauguration. As of yet there has not been a nomination for the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In addition to running the USPTO, the Director is responsible for advising the President on intellectual property issues. I believe that President Biden would have benefitted from an experienced voice knowledgeable about the dangers of supporting the erosion of property rights during the discussions on whether to support India and South Africa’s proposal to the World Trade Organization to waive IP protections under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

Past Events with Russell Slifer

IPWatchdog LIVE 2022

September 11-13, 2022