Q. Todd Dickinson

Q. Todd Dickinson

Head of the United States Patent and Trademark Office
In office 1998–2001
Preceded by	Bruce Lehman
Succeeded by	James E. Rogan

Q. Todd Dickinson is the former Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). He is the current Executive Director of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), and had been mentioned by some sources for possible reappointment to his former post as Director of the USPTO by the Barack Obama administration prior to the appointment of David Kappos to that post.

Dickinson earned a B.S. degree in Chemistry from Allegheny College in 1974 and a J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1977. He is a member of the Bars of Pennsylvania, California, and Illinois, and is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Dickinson began his legal career as a patent and trademark lawyer with Baxter Travenol Laboratories in Deerfield, Illinois, and then took a job with the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania law firm of Blenko, Buell, Ziesenheim and Beck. From 1981 to 1990, he served as counsel to Chevron Corporation in San Francisco, California, focusing on domestic and international intellectual property matters. In 1990, he was hired as Chief Counsel for Intellectual Property and Technology at Sun Company, Inc., a post he would hold until 1995, when he left to join the law firm of Dechert Price & Rhoads.