John A. Squires, Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), will be the keynote speaker at this October’s Via Bridge Summit – the flagship annual event organized by patent pool operator Via Licensing Alliance.
Towards the end of each year, Via holds the Bridge Summit in its home city of San Francisco with the aim of bringing together standard-essential patent (SEP) holders, implementers, and other SEP stakeholders for several days of discussion and debate. ip fray covered news from last year’s Bridge Summit (September 25, 2025 ip fray article), and has attended its past two Business Summits (in Rome: March 20, 2026 ip fray article and in Shanghai: March 20, 2025 ip fray article).
The upcoming 2026 event, running October 6-9, will be the Bridge Summit’s fourth edition.
Hear from Director Squires, one year in
Since taking over the reins as USPTO Director in October 2025, Mr. Squires and his leadership team, including Deputy Director Coke Morgan Stewart, have had an undeniably consequential—and sometimes controversial—impact on the agency (May 4, 2026 ip fray article).
Mr. Squires’s precedential decision in Magnolia v. Kurin encapsulates the approach taken to managing office actions under his and Ms. Stewart’s leadership (May 15, 2026 ip fray article): in short, a focus on preventing purported misuse of the USPTO and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), and ensuring they provide a true alternative to district court litigation on patentability issues, rather than merely duplicating or delaying what happens in Article III fora.
Recently the USPTO also appears to have been more proactive when it comes to SEPs and other standard-related matters. Late last year it established a SEP working group (December 30, 2025 ip fray article) and last month launched a pilot program aimed at incentivizing more U.S. businesses to participate in standard-setting processes by offering expedited patent prosecution services (June 3, 2026 ip fray article).
Via President Kevin Mack told ip fray:
“It’s an honor to be joined by Director Squires as our keynote speaker this year at the Via Bridge Summit, which is Via’s marquee annual event. His participation will not only offer valuable insights to our attendees around current U.S. patent policy, but it will also help us achieve one of the key goals of the Via Summits – to foster dialogue and collaboration across the global patent ecosystem. We look forward to welcoming Director Squires to our event this fall.”