Coke Stewart Leaving USPTO to Return to Private Sector

Acting USPTO Director Coke Stewart speaking at IPWatchdog LIVE. March 4, 2025.

IPWatchdog has learned that U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Deputy Director Coke Morgan Stewart sent an email to USPTO executive staff today informing them that she will be leaving the Office to return to the private sector.

Stewart reportedly told Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and USPTO Director John Squires earlier today that she will be leaving by the end of this week.

Stewart was named Acting USPTO Director by President Donald Trump and sworn in on January 20, 2025. She has been credited with taking quick action as Acting Director to attack the significant backlog she inherited and to enact patent-friendly policies at the USPTO.

Stewart served in various senior management roles with the USPTO over more than a decade, ranging from Senior Advisor to Acting Deputy Solicitor to Acting Chief of Staff and ultimately, after the conclusion of the first Trump term, functionally serving as Deputy Director, with her title then officially having been “Performing the Functions and Duties of Deputy Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the USPTO.”

In 2021, Stewart left the USPTO to become Deputy Attorney General for Virginia, responsible for the areas of healthcare, education, and social services, a role she held for nearly two years. After stepping down as Deputy Attorney General she joined O’Melveny & Myers LLP, a global law firm with 18 offices and more than 800 lawyers. While at O’Melveny, Stewart, who is a seasoned intellectual property and appellate litigator, primarily practiced representing both patent holders and accused infringers in complex patent matters, including through jury trials in the Eastern District of Texas and the Eastern District of Virginia. She has also handled more than 60 Federal Circuit appeals.

Soon after taking on her role as Acting Director, Stewart implemented an aggressive agenda of change. At IPWatchdog’s 2025 Women’s IP Forum, she told IPWatchdog President, Renee Quinn, that her familiarity with the agency enabled her to hit the ground running. “We reached terminal velocity early,” Stewart said. Facing an unprecedented backlog and operational challenges heightened by the aftermath of the pandemic, she explained that her mandate was to take proactive steps to align with the expectations of the Trump administration.

“We came into a crisis situation,” Stewart explained to the Women’s IP Forum, referring to the largest backlog on record, which she inherited from former USPTO Director Kathi Vidal. And, despite challenges imposed by a hiring freeze, return to work orders, and high attrition rates, the Office “has completely turned the tide on the backlog,” Stewart commented at the time.

Stewart also introduced the interim process for Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) Workload Management, and specifically, the “settled expectations” doctrine, which she said was an effort to rebalance. “The pendulum needs to be brought back to the middle,” Stewart told IPWatchdog, when it comes to America Invents Act (AIA) cases. “The AIA is still new,” Stewart said. “Settled expectations is just a level-setting.”

It is not yet known who will take Stewart’s place as Deputy Director.