Gary Smith – Managing Director

Founder and Managing Director, Gary Smith served in the United Nations diplomatic corps as the Director of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) at The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Geneva, Switzerland from 1995 through 2002.  Mr. Smith directed 500 staff from over 50 countries carrying out the legal, operational, administrative, and developmental activities of the treaty.  During this period Mr. Smith oversaw reform that made the PCT system more user friendly and cost efficient.  In addition, he lectured extensively and presented numerous workshops to patent offices and patent practitioners throughout the world on the use of the PCT system, including India, China, Singapore, Korea, The Philippines, Russia, Australia, Mexico and Brazil.

After leaving WIPO at the end of 2002, Mr. Gary Smith returned to the United States where he continues his work in intellectual property. In addition to founding the PCT Learning Center in 2008, he completed consultancies to the Turkish Patent Institute, the Serbian Intellectual Property Office, the Egyptian Patent Office, and is currently working with INDECOPI in Lima, Peru. He also provides expert advice in litigation and opposition proceedings related to the PCT. Prior to his appointment at WIPO, Mr. Smith served 25 years at the USPTO as a patent examiner, Supervisory Primary Examiner, and Director of the PCT International Division.

Carol Bidwell – Program Faculty

Ms. Carol Bidwell became a consultant on PCT matters for the World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO) in January 2006. Prior to accepting this position, she had been employed at the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office as a patent examiner in the Biotechnology Group, a special programs examiner in the PCT Special Programs Office and finally as the supervisor of the Office of PCT Legal Administration from March 1997 until she left the federal service in December 2005. Over the last twelve years, Ms. Bidwell lectured extensively on PCT practice and procedure to audiences throughout the U.S. as well as teaching PCT seminars in Canada and Mexico.

During her career at the USPTO, Ms. Bidwell was awarded a U.S. Department of
Commerce Silver Medal for development of U.S. regulations and international standards for the submission of sequence listings in patent applications and a Department of Commerce Bronze Medal for developing and implementing the PCT International Search and Preliminary Examination Guidelines.

T. David Reed – Program Faculty

T. David Reed, a retiree from Intellectual Property Division of The Procter & Gamble Company, is a consultant on international patent procurement and practice doing business under the name of TDR Patents.  He is also a consultant for WIPO in the United States on matters relating to the Patent Cooperation Treaty

For almost half of Mr. Reed’s 40 years of service with The Procter & Gamble Company, he managed the international patent filing and prosecution area.  David joined P&G in 1966 as a Product Development Engineer upon graduation from Northwestern University.  Following a variety of assignments in Product Development, he was admitted to practice before the United States Patent & Trademark Office as a Patent Agent in 1988 and assumed his position in the Intellectual Property Division.

In 1990, Mr. Reed led the investigation of, and the decision to begin, a practice under the PCT.  David managed the transition from a direct national patent filing practice, and helped build Procter & Gamble’s PCT practice into one of the largest in the world.  Additionally he has had the pleasure of teaching and speaking around the globe for WIPO and others regarding the PCT and P&G’s practice under the PCT as well as other issues relating to international patent practice.