USPTO’s emerging tech and AI head to leave agency

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s emerging technologies lead announced on Tuesday that he will be departing the agency soon to return to the private sector. 

Jerry Ma — USPTO’s director of emerging technology and chief artificial intelligence officer — shared the news in a LinkedIn post, writing that working for the agency “has been the adventure of a lifetime.”

Ma first joined USPTO in October 2020 as the department’s senior-level emerging tech expert. In a 2021 interview with Nextgov/FCW, he said the unique position allowed him to share insights from his previous work and education experiences at Harvard, Facebook and the consulting sector to help advise the agency’s chief information officer and other leaders on using new digital capabilities. 

In his post, Ma said all three administrations he served under “have recognized AI as a national priority,” although he said the Trump administration “will likely preside over the most consequential period thus far in AI's history.”

“President Trump has appointed highly capable leaders at [Office of Science and Technology Policy], the USPTO, and other critical offices for AI innovation, and I look forward to supporting and cheering on their work to maintain our nation's leadership across this next industrial revolution,” he added. 

Ma was one of the 2024 recipients of the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals — also known as the Sammies — for being an emerging leader at USPTO. In an interview with Government Executive last year after he was named a finalist for the award, Ma said “I believe that technologists can have an outsized impact in making our public service and public administration more responsive to the needs of today, the needs of the 21st century.”

While Ma said he is “excited to advance AI innovation in a new capacity,” he added that USPTO’s work to leverage emerging technologies to better serve inventors and the American public “must not stop — and fortunately, that work will not stop.”