BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. (Legal Newsline) - The former Under Secretary of Commerce and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, David Kappos, has been appointed special advisor to the board of ipCreate, the company announced Wednesday.
The “Invention On Demand” company, headquartered in Florida, partners with global technology firms to create patented inventions to complement their own internal research and development efforts.
According to its website, ipCreate is the “brainchild” of John Cronin, the former chief of IBM’s legendary “Patent Factory,” and Marshall Phelps, who turned both IBM and Microsoft’s once-anemic patent licensing operations into multi-billion-dollar businesses.
Kappos left the PTO in February 2013. The office has been without a permanent director since then.
“We are deeply honored to welcome David Kappos as senior advisor to our board,” Cronin said.
“As a hugely-respected figure in the intellectual property field and the driving force behind the passage and implementation of the landmark 2011 America Invents Act, his insights will prove invaluable as we expand our invention partnerships to all corners of the globe.”
Kappos said in a statement he is honored and excited at the prospect of helping the company “revitalize the original mission of the patent system, which is all about invention.”
Kappos is a partner with New York-based law firm Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP.
Prior to joining the PTO, he spent more than 25 years with IBM, the world’s largest IP holder. He joined the company in 1983 as a development engineer and eventually rose to the rank of vice president and assistant general counsel for intellectual property.
Kappos earned his undergraduate degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of California, Davis, and his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
From Legal Newsline: Reach Jessica Karmasek by email at patents@legalnewsline.com.