August 13, 2004
#04-14
Press Release, 04-14
Commerce Secretary Evans Names Stephen M. Pinkos Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property
PRESS RELEASE
Secretary of Commerce Don Evans has appointed Stephen M. Pinkos to serve as Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the Commerce Department’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property Jon Dudas said, "I am extremely pleased to have Steve as my Deputy. Steve will be a key member of the USPTO’s management team. In addition to his legislative experience, Steve brings a working knowledge of intellectual property and USPTO issues. He will be a great asset in our on-going effort to transform the USPTO into a more quality driven, highly productive, cost-effective organization."
Prior to joining the USPTO, Mr. Pinkos served as staff director and deputy general counsel for the House Judiciary Committee. He was responsible for working with Chairman Sensenbrenner and the General Counsel to plan and execute the committee’s overall agenda. This included working on issues related to intellectual property law, free trade agreements, immigration law, criminal and constitutional law, antitrust law and civil liability reform. In the area of intellectual property, Pinkos worked on USPTO reauthorization and modernization, intellectual property piracy, Madrid protocol implementation, copyright arbitration, Web casting, and database protection. Recent intellectual property legislation in which he was involved included H.R. 1866 and 1886 (patent reexamination reform bills of 2002) as well as the TEACH Act in 2002 (clarifying rules governing the use of copyrighted works online by educational entities.)
From 1998 to 2001, Mr. Pinkos served Judiciary Chairman Hyde as counsel, and from 1995 to 1998, Steve served as legislative assistant and then legislative director for Congressman Sensenbrenner. During that time he worked on several important intellectual property bills, including the Fairness in Music Licensing Act, the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Satellite Home Viewers Act and the American Inventors Protection Act.
Mr. Pinkos was born in Pittsburgh, Pa., earned a B.A. degree in political science from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1992 and a J.D. from DePaul University College of Law in Chicago in 1995. He is a member of the Virginia State Bar.
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