Patrick Kole is the Vice President, Legal & Government Affairs for the Idaho Potato Commission (IPC). Mr. Kole has practiced law for the past thirty-nine years. He has specialized for the last twenty-four with IPC, where he focused, in part, on market access issues, including developing new markets for Idaho® potatoes. Mr. Kole has litigated certification mark cases, registered certification marks in many jurisdictions and developed legislation that amended the Lanham Act. He has testified before the U.S. Congress several times. Mr. Kole manages IPC’s government affairs at the Federal, State and local levels, directs the IPC’s Trademark licensing program, directs IPC’s research and education program and supervises IPC’s IT needs. He has an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in Legal Anthropology and a Law Degree from The University of Denver, where he served on the editorial staff of the Denver Journal of International Law and Policy. He has worked for nineteen years in protecting agricultural Intellectual Property Rights which are a key component of agricultural marketing.
Mr. Kole serves on several committees including: the Related Rights Committee, the North American Council, the Geographic Indicators Sub-committee of the International Trademark Association, and has served on the Trademark Legislation Sub-committee of the American Bar Association. He was appointed to the Plant Variety Protection Board of the United State Department of Agriculture.