Colleen Chien of Santa Clara University School of Law has been chosen to join President-Elect Joe Biden’s 20-person review committee for the Department of Commerce, which includes oversight of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Agency review committees are tasked with looking at an agency’s operations to report to the new administration on issues they are facing, regulations or staffing needs, or industry trends affecting the agency.
Professor Chien previously served in the Obama White House from 2013 to 2015 as Senior Advisor on Intellectual Property and Innovation to the U.S. Chief Technology Officer in the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Professor Chien is nationally known for her research and publications on domestic and international patent law and policy issues. She has testified on multiple occasions before Congress, the DOJ, the FTC, and the USPTO on patent issues, frequently lectures at national law conferences, and has published several in-depth empirical studies, including of patent litigation and patent-assertion entities. In the realm of criminal justice, she is founder of the Paper Prisons initiative a research initiative that which works to document and narrow the second chance gap between those eligible for and receiving second chances.
Learn more here.