Shira Perlmutter

Shira Perlmutter is the Register of Copyrights and Director of the U.S. Copyright Office. Appointed in October 2020, Perlmutter advises Congress and executive branch agencies on copyright policy and directs the administration of important provisions of the U.S. Copyright Act, leading a workforce of nearly 500 employees.

Prior to her appointment as Register, Perlmutter had served since 2012 as Chief Policy Officer and Director for International Affairs at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In that position, Perlmutter was a policy advisor to the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and oversaw the USPTO’s domestic and international IP policy activities, including through the Office of Governmental Affairs, the Global Intellectual Property Academy (GIPA), the IP Attaché Program, and the Office of the Chief Economist.

Before joining the USPTO, Perlmutter was Executive Vice President for Global Legal Policy at the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). Prior to that, she held the position of Vice President and Associate General Counsel for Intellectual Property Policy at Time Warner.

Perlmutter previously worked at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva as a consultant on copyright and electronic commerce. In 1995, she was appointed as the first Associate Register for Policy and International Affairs at the U.S. Copyright Office.

From 1990 through 1995, Perlmutter was a law professor at The Catholic University of America, teaching copyright, trademark, and unfair competition law, as well as international intellectual property law. While on the faculty, she was the copyright consultant to the Clinton Administration’s Advisory Council on the National Information Infrastructure. Earlier in her career, she practiced law in New York City, specializing in copyright and trademark counseling and litigation. She is a co-author of a leading casebook on international intellectual property law and policy, has published numerous articles on copyright issues, and is a research fellow at the Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre at Oxford University.

Perlmutter received an AB from Harvard University and a JD from the University of Pennsylvania.