Michelle Lee, Former Director of USPTO

Today, my guest is Michelle Lee, the former Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the first woman to serve as Director of the USPTO.

Prior to this role, Michelle was Deputy General Counsel for Google and Head of Patents and before that, a Partner at Fenwick & West, where she advised companies on intellectual property, licensing, litigation and corporate matters. Michelle was also a law clerk to Judge Paul R. Michel on the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and Judge Vaughn R. Walker on the District Court for Northern California. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Michelle worked as a computer scientist at the M.I.T. Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Hewlett-Packard Research Laboratories. She holds a BS and MS in EE and CS from M.I.T. and a JD from Stanford Law School.