Gene Quinn

This week on IPWatchdog Unleashed, I spoke with Fran Cruz and Marlene Valderrama. Recorded before a live audience following IPWatchdog’s Women’s IP Forum, our conversation explored how professionals build relationships that lead to business, career opportunities, and better ways of doing their jobs. Drawing on their perspectives at Juristat and Halliburton, respectively, Fran and Marlene returned to a fundamental point: earning someone’s attention begins with understanding what matters to them. That requires asking questions and actually listening.

This week on IPWatchdog Unleashed, IPWatchdog President Renée C. Quinn spoke with Coke Morgan Stewart. Formerly Acting Director and Deputy Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Stewart is now president and CEO of the Council for Innovation Promotion (C4IP). Their conversation, recorded at IPWatchdog’s 2026 Women’s IP Forum, examines what she learned while leading the agency, why she believes the patent system needs legislative reform, and how her experience has shaped her approach to leadership and advocacy.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director John Squires has postponed the anniversary celebration scheduled for Tuesday, September 29. In a message sent to invitees from squirescelebration@gmail.com and signed “John,” Squires said his schedule “isn’t cooperating” and called a “rain delay until we can reschedule.” The message provides no new date.

IPWatchdog has learned that U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director John Squires plans to celebrate one year in office with an event on September 29. To our knowledge, this is the first time a Director has publicly celebrated the one-year anniversary of their appointment. After the original publication of this article Director Squires took to LinkedIn to claim the story was not properly sourced, focusing only on the location of the event. Squires posted: “I dunno there Gene Quinn, time to invest in a new fact-checker. The event’s being held at Ford’s Theater.” The invitation itself (pictured above) clearly and unambiguously says that the event would take place at the Motion Picture Association headquarters. And whether this event takes place at MPA headquarters or Ford’s Theater, questions still remain about who is paying for the event, whether the event is a public USPTO event, what purpose the event will promote, and whether USPTO employees are planning or executing the event.

Online counterfeiting has become ubiquitous. A seller located anywhere in the world can create a digital storefront, copy a brand owner’s photographs and product descriptions, adopt a business name that reveals nothing, and begin selling into the United States before the brand owner even knows the account exists. If the seller is discovered and enforcement begins, the listing disappears, the money moves out of the country and beyond the practical reach of the court system, and a new account surfaces under a different name. Then the entire process repeats.