Derrick Brent to Be Sworn in as Next USPTO Deputy Director

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced today that Derrick Brent will serve as the Office’s next Deputy Director.

According to the announcement, Brent hails from both the public and private sectors, most recently serving as a consultant advising startups on IP and other issues. He consulted for Cut Golf, an early-stage golf equipment and apparel company. He also served for six years as Chief Counsel to Senator Barbara Boxer and was known as “a respected authority on 2011’s America Invents Act,” according to the USPTO’s release. He clerked for the Honorable Algenon L. Marbley, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, served as a litigator with the law firm of Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP in Ohio, and as a Senior Trial Attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division.

The Deputy Director position has been essentially vacant for some time. Former Commissioner for Patents Drew Hirshfeld, who had been performing the functions and duties of the Director since former Director Andrei Iancu’s departure in January 2021, stepped in as Acting Deputy Director upon Kathi Vidal’s swearing in this April. Before that, David Berdan was performing the functions and duties of the Deputy Director after Coke Stewart, who had been performing the functions and duties of the Deputy Director before him, left to join the faculty of the Regent University School of Law. Laura Peter served as Deputy Director under Iancu.

Brent is also an engineer who worked for General Motors prior to becoming a lawyer. He served as an engineer in the company’s powertrain division and managed the engineering and business activities for multiple subcontracted manufacturing facilities across the country. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from The Ohio State University and a Juris Doctor degree from the Northwestern University School of Law (now the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law).

Brent will be sworn in on August 1. In his new role, he will be the principal advisor to Director Vidal, “managing a wide portfolio of programs and operations for one of the largest intellectual property (IP) offices in the world, with more than 13,000 employees and an annual budget of more than $4 billion.”

“I am thrilled to welcome Derrick to America’s Innovation Agency,” said Vidal. She continued:

“Derrick’s wide and deep experience in intellectual property, policy, government, and industry will serve the agency well. His work in the private and public sectors, working with a wide range of IP constituencies in different industries across the country, from Georgia to Ohio to California, and fighting for civil rights and the rights of the under-resourced and underrepresented, will undoubtedly lift this agency to new heights. I am excited to partner with Derrick to expand innovation throughout our country and bring more of it to impact.”