United States Patent and Trademark Office

"USPO" redirects here. For the agency governing United States Post Offices, see United States Postal Service.

United States Patent and Trademark Office
Seal of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

The James Madison building on the campus of the United States Patent and Trademark Office headquarters in Alexandria. This is the largest building on the campus.
Agency overview
FormedJuly 4, 1836; 188 years ago (1836-07-04)[1][2]
Washington, D.C., U.S.
HeadquartersAlexandria, Virginia, U.S.
38°48′05″N 77°03′50″W / 38.801499°N 77.063835°W / 38.801499; -77.063835
Employees13,103 (as of September 30, 2022)[3]: 20 
Agency executives
  • Kathi Vidal, Director
  • Derrick Brent, Deputy Director[4]
  • Vaishali Udupa, Commissioner for Patents[5]
  • David S. Gooder, Commissioner for Trademarks[6]
Parent agencyUnited States Department of Commerce
Websitewww.uspto.gov
United States patent law
Legislation
Types of patent claims
Procedures
Other topics

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alexandria, Virginia, after a 2005 move from the Crystal City area of neighboring Arlington, Virginia.

The USPTO is "unique among federal agencies because it operates solely on fees collected by its users, and not on taxpayer dollars".[7] Its "operating structure is like a business in that it receives requests for services—applications for patents and trademark registrations—and charges fees projected to cover the cost of performing the services [it] provide[s]".[7][8]

The Office is headed by the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, currently held by Kathi Vidal as of April 19, 2022. Andrei Iancu was the former director of the USPTO until he left office on January 20, 2021.

The USPTO cooperates with the European Patent Office (EPO) and the Japan Patent Office (JPO) as one of the Trilateral Patent Offices. The USPTO is also a Receiving Office, an International Searching Authority and an International Preliminary Examination Authority for international patent applications filed in accordance with the Patent Cooperation Treaty.

  1. ^ "Records of the Patent and Trademark office". National Archives and Records Administration. August 15, 2016.
  2. ^ An act to promote the progress of the useful arts, and to repeal all acts and parts of acts heretofore made for that purpose, ch. 356, 5 Stat. 117 (1836)
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference FY 2022 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Derrick Brent". U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Retrieved September 13, 2022.
  5. ^ "Vaishali Udupa". U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Retrieved February 8, 2023.
  6. ^ "David S. Gooder". U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Retrieved February 8, 2023.
  7. ^ a b Bohle, Shannon (February 2014). "A Four Part Series on Open Notebook Science (Part 4)". Nature.com. Archived from the original on February 19, 2014. Retrieved February 19, 2014.
  8. ^ "USPTO 2014–2018 Strategic Plan" (PDF). United States Patent and Trademark Office. February 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 22, 2014. Retrieved February 19, 2014.