Sad news about our friend, colleague, and Board member Q. Todd Dickinson
Dear PTAB Bar Association Members,
I write on behalf of the Board of Directors of the PTAB Bar Association to express our great sadness at the news that our fellow Board member, colleague, and friend, Q. Todd Dickinson, passed away on Sunday.
In addition to his many other accomplishments, both personal and professional, Todd has been a key member of our Association’s leadership from its first moments in 2016. Todd was part of the Association’s first interim Board of Directors in 2016, and has been an active elected Board member ever since – as well as, over the years, a Chair and member of the Association’s Nominating Committee and Vice-Chair of our Amicus Committee, which Todd helped to establish last year. We are immensely grateful for the insights and perspective Todd shared from a lifetime of deep experience in the IP community – having served, among other things, as Director of the USPTO, chief IP counsel of Sun and General Electric, an active member of the bar in private practice, and a leader in various prominent associations, including as Executive Director of AIPLA. But in addition to sharing his ideas, Todd also showed up and rolled up his sleeves whenever there was hard work to be done – and always with a smile. His enthusiasm for making the patent system – and our Association – function at its best was infectious.
As many have said, Todd filled a room with his presence, and people gravitated to his engaging personality and enthusiasm for life. But Todd also made each of us feel special by showing a real, personal interest in what interested us, and in wanting to make things better. His good cheer, ready hand, and real generosity of spirit were an important part of our work together as an Association, and he will be greatly missed by all of us. I know each of you joins the Board in extending our deepest sympathies to Todd’s family – including his husband, Robert – and to Todd’s many other friends and colleagues. We are grateful for the time we had with Todd, and for all that he did for our Association and its members.
Steve Baughman
President, PTAB Bar Association
