Director's Blog: the latest from USPTO leadership

Update on USPTO Satellite Offices

Blog by Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the USPTO Michelle K. Lee

In an era where our stakeholders’ businesses are rapidly evolving and the intellectual property (IP) landscape is constantly adapting to new and emergent technologies, it’s important to ensure the USPTO can engage effectively with communities, industries, and innovators. That’s why we’ve expanded our footprint across the country, offering services at the doorsteps of entrepreneurs, and addressing challenges particular industries are facing. Our satellite offices play a crucial role in these efforts, assisting inventors, entrepreneurs, and small businesses in their respective regions, while supporting our core mission of fostering American innovation and competitiveness.

We are moving forward in standing up these regional hubs for innovation and look forward to opening our Texas Regional Office in fall 2015, which will be located in the Terminal Annex Federal Building in downtown Dallas. We recently posted a job announcement for a Regional Director, responsible for general oversight of the office as the most senior ranking official representing the USPTO. We’re looking for the best and brightest candidates to assist businesses throughout the state with the challenges of navigating an IP system, and work with Texas’s burgeoning technology sectors such as the clean tech, semiconductor, and biosciences industries. The application deadline for the Regional Director position is January 10, 2015, and we anticipate appointing the Regional Director prior to the office’s opening in the fall.

On June 30, 2014, we held a memorable opening ceremony for the Rocky Mountain Regional Office located in the Byron G. Rogers Federal Building in Denver, Colorado, attended by a number of government officials and regional stakeholders. The Denver office serves as a one-stop shop for the Rocky Mountain region’s entrepreneurs to get cutting-edge ideas to the marketplace faster, grow their businesses, and enable them to create new, high-skilled jobs. Under the leadership of Regional Director Russ Slifer, the Denver office has already welcomed its third class of patent examiners, putting it well on the path to hire a full staff of 100 by summer 2015. Additional outreach activities have included press interviews, an AIA First-Inventor-to-File Roadshow stop, and a patent examiner hiring event.

Excitement is building as the West Coast Regional Office, operating out of Menlo Park, California since 2012, remains on track to open in spring 2015 in its permanent location in San Jose City Hall. The office continues to expand through training programs, workshops, and partnerships with local innovators, while Regional Director John Cabeca has been reaching out to stakeholders in the unique innovation ecosystems of California, Washington, and Oregon. The office is actively engaging with the entrepreneurial community while tailoring programs and events to the region’s unique industries, such as the USPTO’s first Cybersecurity Industry Partnership meeting on November 14, 2014.

Meanwhile, the Elijah J. McCoy satellite office in Detroit, which opened in one of our nation’s historic innovation hubs in July 2012 as our first satellite office, is thriving. On November 18, the State Bar of Michigan’s Intellectual Property Law Association and Pro Bono Initiative kicked off the Michigan Patent Pro Bono Program, a critical milestone in the expansion of the USPTO Pro Bono Program. Saturday Seminar sessions provide training to independent inventors and small businesses on the importance of IP protection, and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) is making headway reducing the inventory of trial and appeal cases in a new space that includes a hearing room.  Also, the PTAB twice visited Detroit this year to host educational forums about the AIA trials. We anticipate announcing the name of our new Regional Director of the Detroit office in the coming weeks.

In September, we submitted to Congress our report on satellite offices highlighting our significant outreach activities that have touched major stakeholders and have actively raised awareness of IP in all the satellite locations. Finally, we are currently accepting applications until December 29, 2014 for administrative patent judges in Alexandria, Dallas, Denver, and Silicon Valley, and Detroit.

USPTO satellite offices are critical to accomplishing our goal to support technological innovation and creativity, and I’d like to recognize the support of regional stakeholders, local and federal government officials, and the hard-working USPTO personnel in each location. The upcoming year promises to be an exciting one for our satellite offices as we’ll be cutting the ribbon on the permanent space for our final two. I will continue to keep you informed about the grand openings and other new developments. We look forward to bringing you even better and more convenient services to your local innovation communities.

Posted at 07:16AM Dec 04, 2014 in USPTO  |  Comments[1]