According to a report from Federal Computer Week (FCW), the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office is expected to name David Freeland as its new chief information officer. Freeland, a systems chief with the Texas Department of Human Services, is still awaiting clearance from the Office of Personnel Management.
The position of CIO is critical for the PTO as the office is undergoing a transfer to a paperless office. Doug Bourgeois, Freeland’s immediate predecessor, is credited with initiating the move to electronic format:
LINK: If it weren’t for Doug Bourgeois, his colleagues say, patent examiners would still be examining paper submissions as they had for 200 years.
According to the budget for fiscal year 2005, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officials will have about $300 million to spend on information technology projects, reportedly a 45 percent increase.
(Thanks to Florence Olsen at FCW for the reports).