Brad Watts
- Vice President, Patents and Innovation Policy, Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC), U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Brad Watts is the Vice President for Patents and Innovation Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC). As Vice President, Brad works with U.S. Chamber members to foster a political, legal, and economic environment where innovators and creators can invest in the next big thing for the benefit of Americans and the world.
He previously served for four and a half years as the Republican Chief Counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Intellectual Property. As Republican Chief Counsel, he was responsible for planning and implementing Senator Thom Tillis and the Republican party's legislative portfolio on all aspects of intellectual property law. In the 116th Congress, when Senator Tillis was the then Chairman of the Subcommittee, Brad served as Majority Chief Counsel and Staff Director for the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Intellectual Property. As Majority Chief Counsel, Mr. Watts was responsible for planning and implementing then Chairman Tillis’ legislative and oversight agenda on all aspects of America’s innovation economy. During his tenure as Majority Chief Counsel, the Subcommittee held over seventeen legislative and oversight hearings and multiple staff briefings on intellectual property issues ranging from the state of patent eligibility law in America to reforming the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. Under Mr. Watts' leadership, the Subcommittee passed the CASE Act, the Trademark Modernization Act, and the Protecting Lawful Streaming Act, three landmark bills that collectively represent the largest changes to intellectual property law since the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act.
Prior to his appointment as the Subcommittee’s Republican Chief Counsel, he had served as Chief Counsel in Senator Thom Tillis’ (R-N.C.) personal office. Earlier in Mr. Watts' career he spent two years serving as Chief Immigration Counsel to then Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA). He began his career with then Senator Jeff Sessions as a Legislative Counsel on the Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest, handling civil rights and civil liberties law, general tort law, bankruptcy, telecommunications, and intellectual property issues for the Senator.
