The Honorable Melissa A. Haapala was appointed as Vice Chief Administrative Patent Judge to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) on September 27, 2021. Judge Haapala was appointed as an Administrative Patent Judge on November 17, 2014 and has served as a Senior Lead Administrative Patent Judge and a Lead Administrative Patent Judge. In addition to her executive management and supervisory responsibilities, Judge Haapala has presided over numerous inter partes reviews under the America Invents Act (AIA) and heard hundreds of appeals from adverse decisions of examiners in patent applications. Prior to joining PTAB, she worked as a staff software engineer for Storage Technology, practiced at several law firms, served as Senior Counsel at Sun Microsystems, and as Assistant General Counsel at Ricoh.

Vice Chief Administrative Patent Judge Haapala earned a law degree from the University of Denver College of Law, a Master of Science degree in Computer Information Systems, Management of Technology from Regis University, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of Colorado. She is also the mother of three boys.