Janet Gongola is the Patent Reform Coordinator at the USPTO responsible for rolling out the new rules packages for the implementation of the AIA. If you subscribe to Hal Wegner’s daily email listserv, you may have seen him refer to her affectionately as the “Rules Czarina.” She was a former law clerk for retired Chief Judge Paul Michel and District Court Judge Sue Robinson. In addition, she served as in-house counsel at Eli Lilly back in my hometown of Indianapolis.
Ms. Gongola was most recently with the solicitor’s office at the USPTO and has argued frequently at the Federal Circuit. The oral argument in In re Kubin, 561 F.3d 1351 (Fed. Cir. 2009) between Ms. Gongola and Barbara Rudolph was a particularly memorable and impressive one (by both advocates). [Listen].