Deborah Cohn spent more than three decades as a public servant in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. She says that she has always believed in public service, and understands that one committed individual really can make a difference.

"I'd always been interested in public service and admired people working in it, and government service and trademarks together seemed like the perfect match," she recalls. "So when a position for a trademark examining attorney opened up, I interviewed for it and was lucky enough to get hired." That interview and hiring happened as she completed her law degree at the George Mason University School of Law. The USPTO hired her for that trademark examining attorney position and she began almost immediately. "The rest," she says, "is history."

She spent five years as a trademark examining attorney, examining applications for trademark registration, writing legal briefs, presenting oral arguments, and performing special details and projects with the Assistant Commissioner and the Office of the Solicitor.

In 1988 Deborah Cohn became a Managing Attorney, and spent the next decade in that position before becoming a Group Director in the Trademark Law Offices. This period saw one of the great triumphs of her career, when she led the development and implementation of a telework program at the USPTO, which allowed employees to work from home via the Internet. "We have very low attrition since we've started it," she says. "People find that they can have quality work lives and they don't want to leave." USPTO employees were spread out across the United States, she says, but working remotely had no effect on their productivity. "Employees have exactly the same technical tools at home as they do in the office...a customer service survey showed that our users were happy with the interactions they had with teleworkers."

On the final day of 2010, Deborah Cohn became the Commissioner for Trademarks at the USPTO, a position that she held until her retirement at the end of 2014. She says that throughout her career as a public servant she has been consistently impressed with the quality of her colleagues, who like her have been dedicated to their work. "The USPTO has talented and motivated people within Trademarks and outside trademarks, in all of the other areas of the USPTO," she says. "When you work with people like that, it can't help but be enjoyable."

For more information visit at: http://www.slideshare.net/DeborahCohn1