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SATELLITE
PATENT OFFICE TO OPEN IN SILICON VALLEY
The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office ("PTO") will be
opening a satellite patent office in San Jose, California by late
2014. What does this mean for California inventors and patent
attorneys? According to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker:
The USPTO plays a crucial role in helping protect the cutting-edge
ideas that drive our economy and keep the U.S. globally
competitive. The permanent satellite offices [will] help ... entrepreneurs
get their products to market more quickly, provide resources
tailored to the needs of local start-ups, and create good paying,
high-skilled jobs.
The facility will house at least 60 patent examiners, and about 20
Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) judges, along with public
access to patent search equipment. It is not clear how a satellite
office will help entrepreneurs get products to market faster. If
entrepreneurs are waiting to introduce their products to market
until they have a patent, then this may be true if and only if the
satellite office speeds up the patent process. However, it is my
experience that it is the fact of having more patent examiners, not
their location, that will speed up patent processing. Further,
virtually all entrepreneurs introduce their products to the market
as soon as they can, which is usually as soon after filing a patent
application as possible. If the PTO puts patent examiners who are
skilled in the particular technical arts of software and electronics
that are common in the Bay Area, then there will certainly be some
benefit in reducing the cost of trying to get a patent when it is
desirable to have an in person interview with an examiner or an
oral argument in an appeal or other complex patent office proceeding
Sincerely,
David
Hoffman Patent Group
28494 Westinghouse Place, Suite 204
Valencia, California 91355
(661) 775-0300
(661) 775-9423 Fax
David@DLHpatent.com
DLHpatent.com
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