March 10, 2014 -- The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has appointed Sarah T. Harris ’91 as its general counsel, overseeing an office of 100 lawyers and paralegals and three deputy general counsels.
Harris is currently deputy general counsel for intellectual property at AOL Inc., in charge of intellectual property policies and strategies for managing issues, including patent litigation, copyrights, trade secrets, defamation, publicity rights, trademarks and domain names.
Former USPTO General Counsel Bernard Knight told Reuters the selection of Harris, as someone with background in the software and high-tech industry, was likely to be seen as a boost to White House efforts to thwart companies accused of abusive patent litigation, often derisively called "patent trolls."
