Peter-Anthony Pappas, a Republican from New Jersey with deep experience in intellectual-property policy, artificial intelligence and patent administration, has been sworn in as a Commissioner of the U.S. International Trade Commission, placing a longtime Washington policy specialist at one of the U.S.’ most consequential trade bodies.
Pappas took office on August 3 after being confirmed by the Senate on July 16. He was nominated by President Donald Trump in June. His term runs will through June 16, 2035.
His appointment comes amid increasingly trade disputes shaped not only by tariffs and market access, but by patents, technology standards, artificial intelligence and the protection of intellectual property. For global businesses—particularly exporters, technology companies and manufacturers—the Commission’s decisions can determine whether products enter the U.S. market, face restrictions or become the subject of costly litigation.
The USITC is an independent, nonpartisan Federal agency that investigates claims on imported goods that harm U.S. industries or violate American intellectual-property rights. The agency also provides the President and Congress with analysis on tariffs, trade and competitiveness, while maintaining the U.S. Harmonized Tariff Schedule, the foundation for classifying goods entering the country.
Pappas arrives with more than two decades at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, where he served in several leadership roles, including as a special adviser to former USPTO Director Andrei Iancu. His work covered patent eligibility, agency operations and the growing relationship between artificial intelligence and intellectual-property law.
He helped develop the USPTO’s 2019 guidance on patent eligibility and participated in the agency’s first working group examining the intersection of AI and intellectual property. He also worked on a framework designed to use AI to improve prior-art searches during patent examinations—an area of increasing importance as patent offices and companies worldwide look to automate parts of the innovation process.
Before joining the Commission, Pappas was director of intellectual-property policy for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee under Senator Thom Tillis. In that role, he advised on intellectual property, antitrust, technology and cybersecurity, and worked on major bipartisan legislation, including the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act and the PREVAIL Act.
Pappas has also focused on access to the patent system for independent inventors and small businesses. He created the USPTO’s first randomized controlled trial, which became the basis for the agency’s Pro Se Pilot Program offering patent assistance to independent inventors and smaller enterprises. Research arising from that work examined gender gaps in patenting and the business lifecycle of independent inventors.
His appointment also comes as as the first joint review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement get underway. The review has placed supply-chain security, rules of origin, digital trade and the region’s dependence on imports from outside North America at the center of discussions.
With trade enforcement increasingly moving beyond traditional industries into semiconductors, digital platforms, clean-energy equipment, pharmaceuticals and technologies that depend on complex intellectual-property protections, Pappas’s policy background will prove especially significant as the Trump Administration seeks to strengthen domestic manufacturing and innovation while competing with China and other major economies for leadership in advanced technology.
Pappas’ background also takes on a greater significance as the European Union intensifies its regulation of American technology companies. In late July, the EU Commission fined Google euro890 million under its Digital Markets Act for anticompetitive search results and app services. While Pappas’s will not negotiate with Brussels or set U.S. digital platform rules, his office will assess the economic consequences of this new regulatory environment on U.S. companies and cross-border commerce.
The convergence of the USMCA review and the EU’s tougher technology regulation will make the USTIC an increasingly important source of analysis for policymakers and companies navigating a more fragmented global economy.
For African entrepreneurs, technology firms and exporters looking to expand into the U.S. market, the Commission remains an important—if often overlooked—part of America’s economic architecture. Its rulings can shape supply chains, determine the cost of trade disputes and influence how U.S. intellectual-property rules affect foreign-made products.
Pappas’s long tenure ahead gives the Trump administration a knowledgeable voice on a Commission that sits at the intersection of trade enforcement, technological competition and America’s broader industrial strategy.
