Former PTO Director, Q. Todd Dickinson, Dies At 67 (1)

Q. Todd Dickinson, an intellectual property lawyer and former director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, died on May 3, the agency confirmed.

Dickinson, 67, served as head of the PTO under President Bill Clinton beginning 1999. He held the position until his resignation in January 2001, overseeing the agency during the implementation of the American Inventors Protection Act, which at the time was regarded as the most important patent legislation in decades.

The patent office said in a statement Tuesday that Dickinson was at the forefront of modernizing the agency, while overseeing the launch of a system that ...