O'Melveny partner William "Tim" Fink. (Courtesy photo)

A top legal adviser at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is joining O'Melveny & Myers to head up its Patent Office practice.

William "Tim" Fink is a former vice chief judge of the PTO's Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) who also spent the last year as a senior legal adviser to the PTO director on a variety of patent-related issues. Fink advised Andrei Iancu and Drew Hirshfeld, who's now performing the duties of the director, on America Invents Act (AIA) proceedings as well as litigation before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the Supreme Court.