Executive Biographies > Director of Office of International Relations

Lois E. Boland

As the Director of the Office of International Relations for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) , Lois E. Boland has responsibility for intellectual property policy issues, both domestically and internationally.

Mrs. Boland was designated Acting Director of the Office of International Relations in 2002 and was selected to be Director in 2003. Over the years, her responsibilities and accomplishments have included supporting USPTO efforts in U.S.-Japan bilateral negotiations, implementing legislation from the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, promoting patent reform through the American Inventors Protection Act, and participating in treaty and Free Trade Agreement negotiations and Patent Cooperation Treaty reform.

She joined USPTO as a Patent Examiner and was selected as a Special Program Examiner in the Office of the Assistant Commissioner for Patents in 1986. She joined the Office of Legislative and International Affairs in 1993 and was promoted to the position of Senior Counsel in October 2000.

Prior to USPTO, Mrs. Boland worked as a Process Engineer for DuPont in Deepwater, New Jersey.

A native of Washington, D.C., Mrs. Boland received a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering, summa cum laude, from the Catholic University of America, and a juris doctor degree from George Washington University's National Law Center. She is a member of the District of Columbia and State of Maryland Bars.

Mrs. Boland has also served as an adjunct professor in law at George Washington University's National Law Center.

United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)

Since 1790, the basic role of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has remained the same: to promote the progress of science and the useful arts by securing for limited times to inventors the exclusive right to their respective discoveries (Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution). Today, the USPTO is a federal agency in the Department of Commerce, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. Through the issuance of patents, the USPTO encourages technological advancement by providing incentives to invent, invest in, and disclose new technology worldwide. Through the registration of trademarks, the agency assists businesses in protecting their investments, promoting goods and services, and safeguarding consumers against confusion and deception in the marketplace. By disseminating both patent and trademark information, the USPTO promotes an understanding of intellectual property protection and facilitates the development and sharing of new technologies worldwide.