USPTO Chooses the Midwest for First Satellite Office
What do Eminem, Aretha Franklin, and the US Patent & Trademark Office have in common? Pretty soon, they’ll all feel at home in the 313 area code. On December 16, 2010, US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and Director of the USPTO David Kappos announced plans to open the first satellite Patent & Trademark Office in Detroit, Michigan sometime in 2011.
Since 1871, the Detroit Public Library has been home to one of several Patent & Trademark Depository Libraries, and since 1996, its Great Lakes Patent and Trademark Center has been one of the few Video Conference Center offices at which interviews with patent examiners at the USPTO in Virginia may be conducted via a secure video connection.
By bringing a physical presence to the Midwest, the USPTO hopes to leverage the region’s high concentration of scientists, engineers, leading research universities and registered patent practitioners to better serve the patent applicant community and help reduce the backlog of more than 700,000 patent applications.