Veteran Baker Botts intellectual property litigator Wayne Stacy has been tapped to head the San Jose office of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

USPTO Director Andrei Iancu swore in Stacy during a virtual ceremony earlier today. He succeeds John Cabeca, who was appointed the office's IP attache for South Asia last December.

As director for the USPTO's Silicon Valley region, Stacy will be charged with tailoring initiatives and programs for California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Alaska and Hawaii.

Stacy had been the head of Baker Botts' IP practice in San Francisco. His recent engagements included defending Twilio Inc. from patent infringement claims brought by competitor Telesign, and representing Dropbox Inc. in its patent infringement suit against Synchronoss Technologies Inc.

He's also taught patent law as an adjunct professor at University of California-Hastings and at University of California-Berkeley in recent years and served as faculty for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, where his courses have ranged from deposition skills to trial skills for public service attorneys.

Stacy had joined Baker Botts with Sarah Guske from Cooley in 2016. Guske will now head up the firm's San Francisco IP department.

Eliot Williams, who heads the firm's IP practice in Palo Alto, said he was sorry to see Stacy leave the firm but understands the great opportunity. "Having someone of his caliber in public service is a good deal for everybody," Williams said.