Intellectual Property News

FTC Expands Intellectual Property Expertise

The Federal Trade Commission announced today that two additional Counsels for Intellectual Property, Armando Irizarry and Thomas Mays, will join the Commission’s Bureau of Competition in July and September, respectively. Mr. Irizarry, who currently teaches IP law at Michigan State University, previously practiced patent litigation at the firm of Fish & Neave. Mr. Irizarry graduated from the University of Puerto Rico, cum laude with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, the University of Pennsylvania with an M.S. in Engineering (Computer and Information Science), and received his J.D. degree from the University of Michigan Law School. Mr. Mays joins the Commission after serving most recently in private practice specializing in the procurement and licensing of intellectual property. Earlier in his career, Mr. Mays worked as a patent examiner at the United States Patent & Trademark Office and later as the Director of the Office of Technology Development at NIH's National Cancer Institute. Mr. Mays received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Ohio State University, a J.D. from Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America, and his Ph.D. in Microbiology from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

Mr. Irizarry and Mr. Mays join FTC Chief Counsel of Intellectual Property Suzanne Michel, and Counsel for Intellectual Property Lore Unt. Before joining the FTC, Ms. Michel worked in the Civil Division of the Department of Justice, where she defended the United States in patent infringement litigation. Ms. Michel received her B.S. with honors from Northwestern University, her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Yale University, and her J.D. from Boalt Hall School of Law. Ms. Michel subsequently served as a law clerk on the Federal Circuit and recently received the Commission’s Paul Rand Dixon Award. Ms. Unt, who also served as a law clerk on the Federal Circuit, recently joined the Commission and has focused on enforcement matters in the health care industry. Ms. Unt received her B.S. degree summa cum laude from the University of Southern California, and her J.D. degree cum laude from Harvard University.

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	Did You Know?
	There are common law rights Federal registration is not required to establish rights in a trademark. Common law rights arise from actual use of a mark. Generally, the first to either use a mark in commerce or file an intent to use application with the Patent and Trademark Office has the ultimate right to use and registration. However, there are many benefits of federal trademark registration.