THE WHITE HOUSE

                     Office of the Press Secretary
                       (Clarksdale, Mississippi)
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                       July 6, 1999

PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES Q. TODD DICKINSON AS ASSISTANT SECRETARY AND COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS AND TRADEMARKS AT THE

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

The President today announced the nomination of Q. Todd Dickinson to serve as Assistant Secretary and Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks at the Department of Commerce.

Mr. Q. Todd Dickinson, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has been serving in an acting capacity since January 1, 1999, and is Deputy Assistant Secretary and Deputy Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks.

Prior to joining the Patent and Trademark Office, Mr. Dickinson served as counsel with the Philadelphia-base law firm of Dechert, Price and Rhoads, and was Chief Counsel for Intellectual Property and Technology at Sun Company, Inc. He has more than twenty years of expertise in all aspects of intellectual property law and management, and has represented individual inventors, educational institutions, small businesses and corporate clients in a wide range of disciplines.

Mr. Dickinson earned a B.S. in Chemistry from Allegheny College, and a J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

The Assistant Secretary and Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks is responsible for maintaining and developing the patent and trademark system of the United States, and for proposing policy and programmatic changes in the system to the President, the Secretary of Commerce and the Congress. He also advocates for increased protection of the intellectual property rights of U.S. citizens throughout the world.

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