The story of how John Squires became USPTO Director doesn’t start inside the Beltway. It starts on the Appalachian Trail, with Doug Pittman camping under shooting stars the night after Trump won the election.
Pittman — a serial entrepreneur, inventor, and self-described “foxhole buddy” and “wingman” of Squires — drove up from Georgia to sit down with host Eli Mazour in the Clause 8 studio for this episode, fresh off a meeting with the new director himself. What he shared was a rare inside account of how Squires ended up in the job, what he walked into, and why Pittman believes the USPTO finally has the right person at the helm.
“Andrei went to Trump and said ‘I’ve got your man’”
The short version: it was Pittman who planted the seed.
The moment Trump won, Pittman texted Andrei Iancu — the USPTO director during Trump’s first administration — from a campsite on the trail. Other names were circulating, and he wasn’t a fan of what he was hearing. His answer was John Squires, his own patent attorney. Iancu’s response: Do you think John would do it? Pittman said he’d ask.
When he did, Squires’ first reaction was “Doug, you’ve lost your mind.”
But Pittman kept pushing, and Iancu worked his magic with the new administration. The rest was fate. On the morning of September 11, 2001, Squires walked through the North Tower alongside his friend and neighbor Tommy Cahill, who then headed up the elevators to the 103rd floor Cantor Fitzgerald trading desk. Squires watched Flight 175 hit the South Tower from his Goldman Sachs office and narrowly escaped the debris cloud when the South Tower collapsed. It was the last time he saw Cahill. In the aftermath, as Squires later described in Senate testimony, he filed patents to combat terrorist financing alongside the FBI and Treasury. Lutnick, who lost 658 Cantor Fitzgerald colleagues that day, rebuilt the firm on patents1. The two men's parallel work in the aftermath of 9/11 forged a relationship that would outlast the crisis: when Lutnick became Commerce Secretary, head of the department that includes the USPTO, Squires was the obvious call.
“Andrei went to Trump and said, ‘I’ve got your man.’ Long story short, that’s how John became USPTO nominee.”
In this episode, Doug Pittman discusses:
Journey from son of a pig farmer to serial entrepreneur, including selling his first tech company during the dot-com boom
How a billboard spotted on a drive to college with his son inspired the invention that led his first patent, and the years-long journey to get that first patent granted
Why he cried when the patent arrived — and why tears of joy turned into “tears of unhappiness”
How Squires led his enforcement strategy and how the twists & turns of that impacted Squires’ view of the patent system
Litigation funders walking away over Section 101 and PTAB exposure
The litigation saga, including the experience of having a judge handle a patent case for the first time
Meeting with former USPTO Director Kathi Vidal and Doug’s unvarnished take on her legacy
The PTAB problem, the injunctive relief gap, and what needs to happen for independent inventors to feel comfortable with the patent system
Squires’ upcoming testimony before the House IP committee
His “1-8-8 Project,” his advice to Squires to “push the limit,” and the personal photo (different from the one above) he sent the director to serve as a daily reminder in his role
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A story Clause 8 explored with former Cantor Fitzgerald attorney David Boundy:
