Director's Blog: the latest from USPTO leadership

Progress Continues at our Four Satellite Offices

Blog by Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO David Kappos

We’re making steady progress in our efforts to get all of our satellite offices up and running as quickly as possible. We recently announced that our Dallas-Fort Worth regional satellite office will be in the Terminal Annex Federal Building in Dallas. It’s a great location that’s well-suited to serve as a home for our employees, and to support the innovation community in Texas and across the southern U.S. We are already underway identifying leadership who know the unique contours of the business landscape to staff Dallas-Fort Worth, as well as our other new satellite offices.

In Silicon Valley, for example, our new director Michelle Lee is already working as our liaison with West Coast innovators, utilizing her vast experience advising highly innovative companies on legal, technological, and business issues to help ensure the success of this new office. Meanwhile, we’re taking a closer look at the communities within Silicon Valley to identify and secure the best location for a permanent office, and for near term temporary space.

In Denver, the General Services Administration is renovating our future office space. In the meantime, we have found temporary space in Lakewood, Colorado to house our Board judges and senior leadership. When we’ve made personnel choices there I will let you know.

Last but surely not least is our Detroit office, which continues to exceed our expectations. We opened only this past July, but we already have 51 patent examiners and 10 administrative judges on board. This puts us ahead of pace to meet our goal of 100 examiners and 20 judges before the end of our first year of operation. And while most of the focus of our Detroit office has been on patents, our satellite offices also serve the trademark community. In fact, Commissioner of Trademarks Debbie Cohn recently met with stakeholders at our Detroit office for a meet-and-greet prior to a USPTO-INTA Roundtable. She reports there was a great deal of interest in Trademark operations and our public outreach.

Our entire team is committed to ensuring our satellite offices are more than just an extension of the USPTO, but are also a valuable force in the economic and innovative environment in their regions. With a physical presence in every time zone, we are now closer than ever to our stakeholders across the country. This progress report highlights how far we’ve come and how we’re advancing.

Posted at 11:20AM Dec 18, 2012 in USPTO  |  Comments[3]