Cynthia C. Lynch

Cynthia C. Lynch currently serves as an Administrative Trademark Judge on the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), deciding appeals from refusals to register marks as well as opposition and cancellation proceedings. From 2006 to 2015, Ms. Lynch was the USPTO’s Administrator for Trademark Policy and Procedure. Her responsibilities in that position included the development and dissemination of trademark regulations and trademark examination policy, as well as oversight of both the Trademark Legal Policy Office and the Office of Petitions, which handles trademark-related petitions to the Director and letters of protest. Ms. Lynch previously served as an Associate Solicitor at the USPTO for five years, where she litigated trial and appellate trademark and patent matters in the federal courts, and regularly assisted the U.S. Solicitor General’s Office on intellectual property cases at the U.S. Supreme Court. Before coming to the USPTO, Ms. Lynch was an Attorney Advisor with the U.S. International Trade Commission, where she worked on intellectual property-based unfair import investigations. She also spent several years in private practice, handling commercial litigation, including patent and trademark cases. Ms. Lynch has served as the Chair of the Virginia State Bar Intellectual Property Section, and as a faculty member for the Virginia State Bar Professionalism Course.