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The United States Patent and Trademark Office is the organization within the United States government that examines and grants patents and trademarks. Established under the Department of Commerce on July 19, 1952[https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies/patent-and-trademark-office] by 35 U.S.C. §1[http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2013-title35/html/USCODE-2013-title35-partI-chap1-sec1.htm], the USPTO fulfills the mandate in Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution "to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."[https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/United_States_of_America_1992]. Since 1790, the USPTO has issued more than 6.5 million patents[http://www.uspto.gov/about-us/news-updates/uspto-web-database-now-includes-all-patents-dating-1790]. The agency's main offices reside in Alexandria, Virginia, with several satellite offices around the country.
==Patent Database==
===[[2015 Patent Data]]===
Classification Numbers can be found [http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/classification/selectnumwithtitle.htm here].
USPTO's new visual database, PatentsView, can be found [http://www.patentsview.org/web/ here].
Google's helpful article on downloading USPTO PAIR (Patent Application Information Retrieval) data can be found [https://www.google.com/googlebooks/uspto-patents-pair.html#AvailableApplications here].
==Criticism==
United States Patent and Trademark Office (view source)
Revision as of 17:57, 3 June 2016
, 17:57, 3 June 2016no edit summary
==History==
===Employment===
The USPTO released its 2015-2018 People Plan, which outlines three pillars of focus for its workforce through the 2018 fiscal year.[http://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/USPTO%202015%20-%202018%20People%20Plan.pdf] The Office intends to use the three pillars of ''lead'', ''engage'', and ''enable'' for its strategic human capital planning, which is "the process by which an organization takes stock of how its people and people-management activities align with and support the agency’s strategic goals." Some human capital planning recommendations include The primary results consist of diversifying and developing its workforce, connecting its employees with the core vision of the USPTO, and maximizing its internal leadership capabilities.
At the end of FY 2015, the USPTO employed 12,667 individuals, which includes 9,161 patent examiners and 456 trademark examining attorneys.[http://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/USPTOFY15PAR.pdf]. This number is up from 12,450 total federal employees in FY 2014[http://www.uspto.gov/about/stratplan/ar/USPTOFY2014PAR.pdf] and 11,773 employees in FY 2013[http://www.uspto.gov/about/stratplan/ar/USPTOFY2013PAR.pdf]. The USPTO is expected to employ around 13,500 employees for FY 2016.[http://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/fy16pbr.pdf]
===Budget===
===Patent Types===
Section 22 of the America Invents Act (AIA) created a Patent and Trademark Fee Reserve Fund, where excess fees collected by the USPTO are to be deposited.[http://www.uspto.gov/patent/laws-and-regulations/america-invents-act-aia/fees-and-budgetary-issues] The reserve fund is meant to reduce uncertainty in financial stability for the office, especially during government shutdown. The reserve should be able to sustain the operations of the USPTO for three months of its patent operations and four-to-six months of its trademark operations. The office projects the reserve fund to hold $1.9 billion through FY 2019, which will allow the office "to propose reducing trademark fees in FY 2015."[http://www.uspto.gov/blog/director/entry/an_update_on_sustainable_funding]
However, the USPTO must still petition Congress annually for permission to spend the money deposited in the reserve fund. ===Proposed Legislation=== *'''The [[Innovation Protection Act]]''' *'''and the [[Patent Fee Integrity Act]]'''have been proposed to monitor and regulate the USPTO funding.
==Fee Diversion==
The Leahy-Smith Act America Invents Act created a USPTO reserve fund to hold excess fees collected in a given fiscal year. Although the reserve fund balance may only be appropriated to USPTO activities, the director of the USPTO must still petition Congress to use these funds in its annual budget request.
==Contact Information==
:Dallas, TX 75202
===Online Locationsand Helpful Links===
*[http://www.uspto.gov/ Website]
*[https://twitter.com/uspto Twitter]
*[https://www.youtube.com/user/USPTOvideo YouTube]
*Classification Numbers can be found [http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/classification/selectnumwithtitle.htm here].*USPTO's new visual database, PatentsView, can be found [http://www.patentsview.org/web/ here].*Google's helpful article on downloading USPTO PAIR (Patent Application Information Retrieval) data can be found [categoryhttps:internal]//www.google.com/googlebooks/uspto-patents-pair.html#AvailableApplications here].
