Faculty Profile: Hope Shimabuku

As the Director of the Texas Regional United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Hope Shimabuku carries out the strategic direction of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO, and is responsible for leading the Texas regional office. Focusing on the region and actively engaging with the community, Ms. Shimabuku ensures the USPTO’s initiatives and programs are tailored to the region’s unique ecosystem of industries and stakeholders.

Ms. Shimabuku brings to the USPTO nearly two decades of experience as an engineer and intellectual property attorney. Most recently, Ms. Shimabuku was part of the Office of General Counsel at Xerox Corporation serving as Vice President and Corporate Counsel responsible for all intellectual property matters for Xerox Business Services, LLC.  She also worked for BlackBerry Corporation advising on United States and Chinese standards setting, cyber security, technology transfer, and intellectual property laws and legislation.  As an engineer, she worked for Procter & Gamble and Dell Computer Corporation.

Ms. Shimabuku is a leader in the Texas region. She currently serves as the Chair for the State Bar of Texas Intellectual Property Section and sits on the Board of Visitors for the University of North Texas Law School. She served as Pupilage Group Leader, a Barrister Member and Inaugural Member of the Barbara M.G. Lynn IP Inn of Court, and served as a facilitator for the DFW Women in Intellectual Property group.  She is a past president of the Dallas Asian American Bar Association, chaired the Dallas Diversity Task Force, and served on the board of the Dallas Bar Association and as a member of the Grievance Committee for the State Bar of Texas – District 6.

Throughout her career, Ms. Shimabuku has championed diversity efforts, and was honored with the DCEO Champion of Diversity Award by the Association of Corporate Counsel. She has also received numerous professional honors, including being recognized as the 2016 Hero of Innovation by the Institute for Law and Technology, selected as a Dallas Business Journal “Top 40 Under Forty,” named Dallas Business Journal's Corporate Counsel Rookie of the Year, and selected as one of DCEO's "500 Most Powerful Business Leaders."

Ms. Shimabuku received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and graduated cum laude with a J.D. from the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law.  She is a native Texan, born and raised in Houston, Texas.  She currently lives in Flower Mound, Texas, with her husband and two daughters