Kathi Vidal Discusses her Return to Winston & Strawn after Serving as Director of the USPTO with Bloomberg Law

Winston & Strawn partner Kathi Vidal was featured in a Bloomberg Law article discussing her return to the firm after serving as Director of the US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) from 2022 to 2024. In this wide-ranging article, Kathi talks about her tenure at the PTO and the legacy she leaves behind, her current client work focused on AI litigation and policy, and the use of AI tools to enhance the legal practice.

Kathi led the charge in laying the groundwork for the PTO’s approach to artificial intelligence. Under her leadership, the PTO issued its first guidance on when AI-assisted inventions qualify for patents and launched initiatives to explore how emerging technologies affect intellectual property rights. 

“Almost everything that we arced is getting across the finish line,” Kathi said, but we “primed the pump so that the next administration could then move forward with additional policy. We didn’t want them to have to start from scratch on a lot of these really important issues.” She said the agency has “a phenomenal AI team” that will continue its work because much of the staff are career employees, not political appointees.

“These are things that need to be solved,” Kathi said. “I don’t have any fear that that work is going to continue.”

At Winston, Kathi is working on amicus brief efforts involving AI and copyright law. She helps clients navigate AI regulations and advises companies that receive government funding, including from the CHIPS and Science Act’s semiconductor manufacturing initiatives. She’s also helping to address “clients’ concerns about the uncertain landscape of court decisions, regulations, and international developments, particularly in Europe,” the article noted.

Read the full article.