Stanford Law School alumna and former Google Inc. executive Michelle Lee J.D. ’92 will serve as deputy director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) beginning Jan. 13 until a new director is named.

The former USPTO director, David Kappos, left his post on Feb. 1 to return to private practice and the agency has since been without a permanent director.

Lee, who works as head of patents and patent strategy at Google, plans to tackle the agency’s consistently problematic backlog of unexamined patents as well as improve patent quality during her stint as deputy director.

The timeline of decisions on selecting a permanent director remains unclear.