Biden picks tech lawyer Vidal to head USPTO

President Biden nominated patent litigator Kathi Vidal as undersecretary for intellectual property and director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office at the Department of Commerce. Vidal is managing partner of Winston & Strawn’s Silicon Valley office and, before that, was global head of litigation at Fish and Richardson P.C. She has litigated patent cases in the top patent jurisdictions, including at the International Trade Commission and PTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). Although biotech has not been a focus for Vidal, her experience covers a broad swath of technologies, including computers, Internet applications, medical devices, semiconductors and software.

Tal Zaks joined the strategic advisory board at Deep Genomics Inc., which is discovering nucleotide-based therapeutics for genetic diseases using AI and machine learning. Zaks, who most recently led mRNA therapeutics programs as CMO at Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA), serves on the boards of Adaptimmune Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ:ADAP) and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE:TEVA; Tel Aviv:TEVA). University of Toronto spinout Deep Genomics closed a $180 million series C round in July and plans to expand its AI Workbench and 10-program pipeline to 30 by 2024...