USPTO Designates Las Cruces, New Mexico Library a Patent and Trademark Resource Center

Washington—The U.S. Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is opening a new Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC) at the New Mexico State University (NMSU) Library located in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The New Mexico State University Library is the only PTRC in the state of New Mexico and will assist citizens throughout the state seeking patent and trademark protection for their intellectual property.  The NMSU Library will have a staff of USPTO trained librarians to provide customer assistance on the use of the agency’s patent and trademark databases.

There will be a free public program, “Patents and Trademarks:  Get the Information You Need to Protect Your Intellectual Property,” on September 21, 2016 in Milton Hall, across from the New Mexico State University Library.  Details on the agenda and pre-registration are available at:  http://bit.ly/2bPjcyJ .

PTRCs are a nationwide network of public, state and academic libraries. They support inventors, intellectual property attorneys and agents, business people, researchers, entrepreneurs, students, historians and the general public unable to visit the USPTO headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. Services at the resource centers are free, and include assistance in accessing and using patent and trademark documents, training on USPTO databases, obtaining access to the USPTO Web site, and hosting public seminars on intellectual property topics for novice and experienced innovators.

The modern PTRC network began in 1871 when federal law first provided for the distribution of printed patents to libraries for use by the public. The addition of the New Mexico State University Library to the PTRC network makes a total of 85 resource centers located in 47 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. 

A list of current PTRC libraries can be found on the USPTO's Web site at www.uspto.gov/ptrc. 

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