Vaishali Udupa Resigns as USPTO Commissioner of Patents

IPWatchdog has learned that Commissioner for Patents Vaishali Udupa has notified the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that she is resigning effective immediately. Udupa has submitted her resignation in order to take advantage of the deferred resignation program —known as Fork in the Road— offered by President Donald J. Trump to federal workers in an email on January 28, 2025.

Vaishali Udupa

The deferred resignation program, widely understood as an attempt to shrink the size of the federal government workforce, was first announced in an email to federal employees on January 28, 2025. The program originally required federal employees to elect by 11:59pm today, February 6, 2025, whether they wanted to accept what is in effect an eight-month severance package that would allow them to receive full pay and full benefits without requiring the performance of any work. However, earlier in the day today the United States Federal District Court of Massachusetts entered an order that extended the deadline until at least Monday, February 10, 2025. A hearing on the legality of the government’s offer is scheduled for Monday, February 10. The offer for eight-months severance is being challenged by several government unions as arbitrary and unlawful.

Udupa became Commissioner for Patents in January 2023, spending just over 2 years in the position. Prior to joining the USPTO she was head of litigation for Hewlett Packard Enterprise, where she was responsible for heading HPE’s intellectual property litigation and formulating case strategies. Udupa replaced Acting Commissioner for Patents Andrew Faile, who served as Acting Commissioner after the retirement of Drew Hirshfeld, who was Commissioner for Patents from 2015 until his retirement from the Office in June 2022.

Well-known within the patent community as an advocate for diversity , Udupa joined the USPTO as a relative outsider. While regarded as an excellent trial attorney, she did not have any meaningful prosecution experience, which reportedly caused tensions at times within the Office. The Commissioner for Patents is effectively the head of the patent operation at the Office and responsible for examiners and examination policy, and has historically been a career senior executive employee who has typically risen through the ranks at the Office, often starting out as an examiner.

Valencia Martin Wallace

Deputy Commissioner Valencia Martin Wallace will immediately assume the role of Acting Commissioner for Patents. Wallace, who is well liked and highly respected within the Office, has spent nearly three full decades working for the USPTO. She has served in multiple roles including as Deputy Commissioner for Patent Quality and Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Patent Operations. Wallace holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Howard University and she earned her JD from The George Washington University School of Law. She also holds a certificate in Advanced Public Administration from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Public Administration.

Source: IPWatchdog