The America Invents Act furthered the era of the satellite Patent Office. The law signed by President Obama on September 16, 2011, laid the foundation for the establishment of at least three satellite offices in addition to the one already planned for Detroit, Michigan. The cities selected for those three satellite offices were Denver, San Jose and Dallas.

The latest announcement from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on satellite offices came recently with the announcement that its permanent satellite office in Denver, Colorado, would officially open on June 30, 2014. The USPTO Denver satellite office will be located in the Byron G. Rogers Federal Building (pictured left) in Denver’s central business district.

The Byron G. Rogers Federal Building is home to multiple federal agencies and offers convenient access to downtown and suburban sites, including through the metro region’s array of public transportation options. The office will eventually house patent examiners, Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) judges, and outreach officials in a 45,000-square-foot space. There are currently nine PTAB judges working in a temporary location opened in Lakewood, Colorado, in January 2013. In addition to those judges, all of whom will relocate to the new office, the USPTO is currently seeking to hire additional judges and patent examiners for the permanent office, as well as a Deputy Regional Director for Outreach. The USPTO says that  100 examiners, 20 administrative patent judges, and their support staff will eventually be housed at the Denver location. All vacancy announcements are posted on www.usajobs.gov.

The Denver satellite office of the USPTO was one of three announced by the Department of Commerce in July 2012. Offices in Denver, Dallas and San Jose were announced in July 2012 to complement the office that had already been announced for Detroit, MI, which officially opened with a ribbon cutting ceremony on July 13, 2012. The Detroit satellite office, located in a building that is listed on the National Historic Registry, is a 31,000 square foot space at 300 River Place Drive.

In August 2012, the USPTO announced that it had chosen the Terminal Annex Federal Building as the site for its Dallas-Fort Worth regional satellite office. The Terminal Annex Federal Building is located along the southern edge of Dealey Plaza in Dallas and is close to public transportation. The USPTO says that the agency’s goal is to have 100 examiners and 20 administrative patent judges, as well as several support staff, on site in Dallas by the end of the first year of operation. No definitive date of opening for the Dallas satellite office has been announced.

In November 2013, the USPTO announced that the San Jose City Hall building, located at 200 East Santa Clara Street, had been selected as the permanent location for the USPTO’s Silicon Valley satellite office. The search for permanent office space for the San Jose satellite office had been put on hold in July 2013 due to sequestration. The USPTO anticipates that the San Jose satellite office will open in early 2015 after renovations and technical infrastructure updates are completed to accommodate USPTO business. John Cabeca, a 25-year USPTO veteran,  has become the Director of the Silicon Valley satellite office with the appointment of Michelle Lee as Deputy Director of the USPTO. Cabeca most recently had been a senior advisor to the Director of the USPTO. Cabeca has also previously served on special assignment in the United States Trade Representative’s (USTR’s) Office for Intellectual Property and Innovation.

Tags: Dallas Satellite Office, Denver Satellite Office, Detroit Satellite Office, patent, Patent Office, patents, San Jose Satellite Office, Satellite Offices, satellite patent offices, USPTO

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