James E. Rogan was sworn in as Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on December 7, 2001. Judge Rogan becomes the 55th head of the agency. He was nominated by President George W. Bush on May 25, 2001, and confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate on November 30, 2001.

Judge Rogan manages USPTO's operations and is policy advisor to the Bush Administration on all domestic and international intellectual property matters. He also co-chairs the National Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordination Council, which oversees domestic and international intellectual property law enforcement issues among federal entities.

Among the Under Secretary's top priorities are securing adequate funding to improve the quality and minimize the processing times of patents and trademarks, as well as strengthening enforcement of patent, trademark, and copyright protections worldwide.

Judge Rogan was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1997 to 2001. He was one of only two members of the House of Representatives to serve on both the prestigious House Commerce Committee and the House Judiciary Committee. His service on the Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property earned him a reputation as a leader on both the protection of intellectual property and the modernization of intellectual property laws to protect America's economic interests. As a member of the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration, Judge Rogan was a leader in helping to increase the number of H1-B immigration visas that are critical to America's high-tech community.

Judge Rogan has a distinguished career in public service. He was a gang murder prosecutor in the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, and was named by California Lawyer Magazine as one of the state's most effective prosecutors. In 1990, he became California's youngest sitting state court judge when he was appointed by Governor George Deukmejian to what is now the Los Angeles County Superior Court, and served as presiding judge of his Glendale court prior to his election to the California State Assembly in 1994.¹ Elected Majority Leader of the legislature in his freshman term, Judge Rogan was named by the California Journal as "Number One in Integrity" and "Number One in Effectiveness" in their biennial statewide survey. Elected to Congress in 1996, Judge Rogan served two terms in the House of Representatives. He served as a House Manager in the United States Senate impeachment trial of President Clinton, after which he was defeated for reelection in his Democrat-majority district. Appointed a local board member of the Selective Service System by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, Judge Rogan recently retired from that post after completing 20 years of voluntary service.

Judge Rogan earned a B.A. degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1979, and his J.D. from UCLA School of Law in 1983, where he was a member of the UCLA Law Review. He and his wife Christine were married in 1988; they have twin daughters Dana and Claire (born in 1992).

¹ Judge Rogan originally was appointed as a judge of the Glendale Municipal Court, and served as presiding judge of that court. Later this court was designated by statute as part of the Los Angeles County Superior Court. The old municipal courts no longer exist as a judicial entity in California.