Smith to lead Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences effective May 8, 2011

Washington – James Donald Smith of Chicago, Ill. has been appointed to serve as the next Chief Administrative Patent Judge of the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI) at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). As BPAI Chief Judge, Smith will lead the board that hears and adjudicates patent appeals from decisions of patent examiners. Smith begins serving as Chief Judge on May 8, 2011.

Smith currently serves as Associate General and Chief Intellectual Property Counsel of Illinois-based healthcare company, Baxter International, where he oversees its global patent, trademark and copyright affairs. He replaces Michael Fleming, the former Chief Judge who retired in the fall of 2010.

Serving under the leadership of Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO David Kappos, Smith will take charge of a board that helps the USPTO encourage innovation and technological advancement, and helps businesses protect their investments and promote goods.

“We are delighted to have James Smith joining the USPTO as Chief Judge of the BPAI. He is the ideal choice to lead the BPAI at this critical juncture, and is committed to making the Board more efficient and more responsive to the needs of parties filing appeals,” Kappos said.

Smith has had a long and successful career in the law and the intellectual property arenas, including a brief time as an examiner at the USPTO. A former Assistant Dean of the law school at Emory University in Atlanta, Smith also served as a clerk at the Federal Circuit, as a patent litigator and patent prosecutor, and led international licensing and day-to-day management of in-house IP teams for three multi-national corporations.

After becoming a lawyer, Smith clerked for now retired Chief Judge Paul Michel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In addition to his work at Baxter International and Emory University, Smith practiced with Arnold White & Durkee and, later, Dewey Ballantine (now Dewey Le Boeuf), serving as the office managing partner of Dewey’s Texas office, before leaving to serve as the Global Licensing Director for Nokia Corporation.

“Director Kappos has assembled a hard-working and highly talented team at the USPTO, and the board has talented and hard-working judges and staff whose rate of being affirmed is already the highest of the tribunals whose decisions are appealed to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. I am pleased to have the opportunity to join them in working to address the board’s backlog,” Smith said.

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