Jon P Santamauro

JON P. SANTAMAURO is counsel in the Washington, D.C., office of Sidley Austin LLP. His focus is on patent law and international intellectual property and trade policy. Mr. Santamauro came to Sidley after many years in government, most recently at the Office of Intellectual Property Policy and Enforcement at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, where he was responsible for a range of domestic and international patent law and policy matters. He negotiated changes to the Patent Cooperation Treaty mechanism for filing and processing international patent applications and had lead responsibility for matters relating to patent law harmonization. He also had a primary role in issues relating to the relationship of intellectual property, genetic resources and traditional knowledge. From 2003 to 2006, Mr. Santamauro served as the Intellectual Property Attaché in the U.S. Mission to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland. He represented the United States on intellectual property issues at the WTO, the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and other UN organizations. He played a key role in negotiations at the WTO on amendment of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. Previously, Mr. Santamauro worked in USPTO as a patent examiner in the field of digital electronic circuits, handled complex patent examination matters and was responsible for training of new patent examiners. He has taught international intellectual property law as adjunct faculty at George Mason University Law School.