Kathi Vidal, the director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, announced in a social media post that she will leave her position next month as the Biden administration prepares to close its term.

Vidal, who said she would return to the private sector, has served as undersecretary of commerce for intellectual property and director of the USPTO since her Senate confirmation in 2022. She was nominated by President Joe Biden in 2021.

In a letter shared Tuesday on her LinkedIn profile, Vidal said Deputy Director Derrick Brent would succeed her after she departs the USPTO in the second week of December. A USPTO spokesperson confirmed to The Recorder that the letter had been sent by email to department employees.

Vidal thanked her colleagues and pointed to a posted list of strategic plan accomplishments that included driving U.S. innovation and global competitiveness; protecting intellectual property rights; and strengthening agency operations.

“Together we pointed the USPTO in a new direction focused on employees and customers. We united under the mission to drive U.S. innovation, inclusive capitalism and global competitiveness for the benefit of all Americans,” she said.

Under her leadership, the USPTO created a new Office of Public Engagement, she said. “I am very proud of the amazing progress we’ve made together,” she added.

Vidal also noted that her team “sat at the table with our union representatives to enshrine our people-first approach into updated collective bargaining agreements for Patents and Trademarks employees, and for support staff to come.”

In October, the USPTO signed an agreement with the National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 245 that covers all trademark examining attorneys as well as Trademark Trial and Appeal Board interlocutory attorneys in the bargaining unit, which includes more than 700 employees, according to a news release.

As USPTO director, Vidal led a $4.2 billion operation with more than 13,500 employees across the 50 states and Puerto Rico. She also served as the principal intellectual property adviser to the Biden administration through the secretary of commerce.

Before joining the USPTO, Vidal was a managing partner of Winston & Strawn’s Silicon Valley office, serving on the firm’s executive committee, and led a litigation group of 270 attorneys on the management committee at Fish & Richardson, according to the department.

A native of Bethesda, Maryland, Vidal earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Binghamton University; a master's degree in electrical engineering from Syracuse University; and a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was editor-in-chief of the law review.

Vidal began her career as a systems engineer at General Electric Aerospace, which later became Lockheed Martin. She graduated from GE’s Edison Engineering Program and designed one of the first artificial intelligence systems for aircraft, as well as aircraft and engine-control systems, according to the department. 

Brent joined the USPTO after serving as chief counsel for U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, where his portfolio included IP and constitutional issues, civil rights, telecommunications and judicial nominations, according to his department bio.

He was a litigator at Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease in Ohio, and served six years as a senior trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division.

He received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Ohio State University and a law degree from the Northwestern University School of Law.