Doll Sworn in as U.S. Commissioner for Patents

John J. Doll, Acting Commissioner for Patents since April 2005, was sworn in as Commissioner for Patents at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on August 17, 2005. As Commissioner for Patents, Doll is responsible for the productivity and quality of the work done by more than 4,000 patent examiners, paralegals and other support professionals, for patent examination policy, budget decisions, and for patent-related Information Technology (IT) decisions.

From January – April 2005, Doll served as the Deputy Commissioner for Patent Resources and Planning directing information processing and technology, and budget formulation and execution for patent operations. He previously served as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary. Doll was a group director from 1995 - 2004 in the technology center responsible for examination of biotechnology, organic chemistry, and pharmaceutical patent applications. He was an integral part of the team responsible for last year's implementation of the Image File Wrapper (IFW), the USPTO's electronic patent application processing system.

Doll has received numerous awards throughout his USPTO career, including the Vice Presidential Hammer Award for his work in establishing the Biotech Customer Partnership; a Department of Commerce Gold Medal for his work on the team that implemented IFW; and a Silver Medal for his work on automating patent examiner tools.

During his tenure as a group director, Doll managed the development and implementation of training materials used by patent examiners to apply the enablement provisions of the patent statute in reviewing applications. He also helped develop and implement the guidelines and training materials used by examiners evaluating patent applications for compliance with the utility and written description provisions of patent law.

Doll holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Bowling Green State University in chemistry and physics and a Master of Science degree in physical chemistry from Penn State University. He joined the USPTO in 1974 as a patent examiner and was promoted to Primary Examiner in 1979 examining patent applications encompassing pharmaceuticals, herbicides, pesticides and dyestuffs.

As a Supervisory Patent Examiner in Groups 1100 and 1800, he was responsible for the examination of applications drawn to a variety of arts including inorganic chemistry, hydrometallurgy, zeolite catalysts, buckministerfullerenes, proteins and peptides. In 1992, he was promoted to be the Deputy Director of Group 1100/2900 that examined chemical, chemical engineering and design patent applications. In 1995, he became the Director of Group 1800 which examined biotechnology patent applications. He was then one of the Directors of the Chemical Matrix that transitioned into Technology Center 1600.

"The creation of a “supergroup” for reexamination – something that eluded every PTO leader for a quarter-century (!) – is directly attributable to Doll’s leadership," writes Professor Wegner.