Debbie cohn meritorious service award

Debbie Cohn: Meritorious Service Award Debbie Cohn says she became interested in intellectual property law as a student at the George Mason University School of Law, when she discovered a class on patents, trademarks and copyrights. "I thought, ‘Trademarks – that's the place for me,'" she recalled. She took the course, and after receiving her law degree interviewed for a position as a trademark examining attorney with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. She got the job, and the rest, she says, is history.

"Trademarks help inspire confidence in a brand, and build an identity for thousands upon thousands of companies making products and providing services across America," Debbie Cohn explains.

"Brand and identity are both vital components for spurring growth and promoting economic development."

The United States, she went on, has been registering trademarks for more than 140 years. The USPTO helps businesses protect their investments, promote goods and services, and safeguard consumers against confusion and deception, through the federal registration system.

Debbie Cohn held that first job as an examining attorney for five years, during which time she examined applications for trademark registration, wrote legal briefs, and presented oral arguments.

She says that examining attorneys are the core of the USPTO. "They are experts in trademark law," she explained. "And they work up to a level of proficiency that increases their expertise. After they get full signatory authority, they're in charge of the entire case through approval of publication."

She became a managing attorney in 1988 and a Group Director for Trademark Law Offices in 1998.

During this period she played a key role in implementing a pilot telework program in the USPTO, which allowed employees to work remotely via the Internet. "We closely measured and monitored the productivity of people who worked at home and compared it to what it was before they worked at home," she recalled. "We compared it to a control group in the office...and we found that productivity went up. There was no question about it. It was a clear win. The quality was the same."

To mark the tenth anniversary of her pioneering work in establishing the work-at-home program, Debbie Cohn received the Telework Driver Award and the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Service. "Thanks to Ms. Cohn's efforts, 85% of eligible Trademark employees now work at home at least one day per week, and more than two hundred Trademark Examining Attorneys work at home a majority of the week."

Debbie Cohn became Commissioner for Trademarks at the end of 2010, and held that position until her retirement at the end of 2014.