by Dennis Crouch
The USPTO began establishing satellite offices a decade ago to expand beyond the traditional Alexandria (Washington DC) headquarters. We now have offices in Detroit, Dallas, Denver, and San Jose. Last year, Congress voted to further expand the decentralization by at least one more. The Unleashing American Innovators Act of 2022 (UAIA) mandates creation of a Southeast Regional Office (SERO). The USPTO is now seeking comments on where the office should be located — and the methodology it should use in selecting a location. [Fed Reg].
The statute requires that it be located in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, or Arkansas. I would automatically rule-out Virginia and North Carolina as too close to the PTO HQ; and also rule-out Arkansas as too close to the Dallas Office. In my mind, I quickly narrowed things down to four potential cities: Atlanta, Jacksonville, Miami, and Nashville.
In my comments to the PTO, I will be including the results of this poll: LinkedIn Poll. Voting is open for a few more days. Atlanta is currently in the lead.
The core objective here is to is to deliver better services to citizens and inventors in the region; be more responsive to their needs; and drive positive changes in these regions. Simultaneously, the Community Outreach Office aims to provide a platform for dialogue, bridging the gap between citizens and the government. The statute sets out five particular considerations:
- Strengthen connections between the Office and patent filers through enhanced outreach to a broad spectrum of innovators including underrepresented, rural, low-income, and student populations.
- Improve retention of diverse patent examiners and judges, taking into account economic, geographic, and demographic factors.
- Enhance the recruitment process to attract more high-quality patent examiners.
- Reduce the backlog of pending patent applications.
- Elevate the standards of patent examination to ensure greater accuracy and quality.
In addition to the new Southeast Regional Office, the PTO has also been tasked with opening a “Northern New England Community Outreach Office (NNECOO)” and the PTO is seeking comments on its location as well. The USPTO will be also be conducting a study to identify whether more regional offices would benefit US innovation.
Meanwhile, the California State Bar has started its process of disbarring the corrupt, lying, miserable stain on the profession named John Eastman.
Eastman’s expected witnesses include people who have claimed anomalies in the vote totals in the states Biden won. [Judge] Roland on Tuesday blocked Eastman from calling a certified public accountant who did not begin examining voter data until 2021.
The accountant’s “40 years of experience has nothing to do with the experience of analysis of raw voter data, does it?” Roland said.
Guys like Eastman are incapable of changing stripes. They just need to be stripped of power and title and maybe jailed for a while. Good riddance.
… says a guy like Eastman (just on the opposite side of the aisle)
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Does either Louisville KY or Vernon FL have the technological capabilities to easily and cheaply record Examiner Interviews for the public record? That might be a selling point for some regional office candidate cities.
Hahahaha.
1) Anywhere has that capability.
2) as you no doubt are aware, such is BOTH
A) not a part of the current process, and
B) if made a part of the current process, would actually degrade the process.
Given your quite obvious lack of interaction skills, the facts of why unrecorded ‘give and take’ of open discussion (not cloistered with a ‘on the record’ Damocles sword), AND the Rule that only the written record matters for examination**, the repetition of this view of yours is beyond banal — even as you present it in jest here.
** notwithstanding any shadow programs of the Office.
I cannot share your enthusiasm for the idea of all interviews being “on the record,” but you are almost certain to get your wish on this point regardless of where the satellite offices are located. That is certainly the direction in which PTO policy toward interviews has been moving over the last few years.
office”s”
More propaganda spin from Gas-lighting Greg and his fountain of (lack of) Intelligencer.
Well . . . if not Fantasy Land, how ’bout somewhere in the Western Europe; say Germany, France, or England?
With patents and IP so international these days, doesn’t it make sense to place the next “regional” office there . . . rather than add yet another, unnecessary one in the U.S.?
Or perhaps Haiti? Seems like a place where “I can work with both sides” Biden and the Libs would just love to help out.
I’m sure the PTO would have absolutely no problem staffing up.
Worst case, they could all be air-dropped in; along with the food to feed them.
“Or perhaps Haiti? Seems like a place where “I can work with both sides” Biden and the Libs would just love to help out.”
Juneteenth is a difficult day for some people, including people who are very sincerely concerned about promoting progress in science, education, and “innovation”.
Screen captured for posterity, in case anybody’s wondering.
LOL
You need to get the FBI to set up another terrorist label for those that disagree with your views.
But according to agree (and his hidden hyperlinks), the New York (lack of) Intelligencer, the likes of the DOJ (FBI and the like) have already been weaponized against the “D”s or are VERY neutral.
Your view just does not fit that narrative.
Yikes – missed that autocorrect.
“agree” ==> “Greg”
If you don’t think that the FBI has been labelling people with even one “hard right wing” (lol) “belief” as “terrorists” for the last forever you’re not reading history anon. Same with commies back in the day, but they mostly stopped on commies.
I am not the one over-imbibed in the narrative 6 (that would be Greg).
I lelzed.
Juneteenth has been celebrated in Texas for decades — by proclamation in 1938 and legislation in 1979. I do not think it should be a national holiday, however. If any day for emancipation should be celebrated, it should be the date of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Why is that?
I do not think it should be a national holiday, however. If any day for emancipation should be celebrated, it should be the date of the Emancipation Proclamation.
I guess the question to be asked is what is a proper reason for a holiday?
These are the Federal Holidays:
New Year’s Day: January 1
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: third Monday of January
President’s Day (George Washington’s Birthday): third Monday of February
Memorial Day: last Monday in May
Juneteenth: June 19
Independence Day: July 4
Labor Day: first Monday in September
Indigenous Peoples’ Day (also observed as Columbus Day): second Monday in October
Veterans Day: November 11
Thanksgiving Day: fourth Thursday in November
Christmas Day: December 25
New Year’s Eve doesn’t commemorate anything. Christmas seems to be a violation of church and state. What’s up with Columbus Day?
To paraphrase a tweet I recently saw, complaining about getting Juneteenth isn’t the political flex some people think it is. I’m not sure there are a lot of people who are sad they are getting the day off — I’m not. I (and I think most) would be happier to have more days off than less.
>I’m not sure there are a lot of people who are sad they are getting the day off — I’m not.
I doubt many actually get the day off — I certainly don’t. It’s mostly just another(!) paid holiday for government workers and bankers.
Amusingly, the Emancipation Proclamation was signed on New Years Day; renaming it would have made more sense, financially speaking.
“Christmas seems to be a violation of church and state. ”
Back in the day the federal gov took time off when people already normally took off. As there are a lot of christians in gov and in the country, that was a day already being celebrated by many across the country as a holiday. Also it’s the winter solstice or whatever which is always nice (the days begin getting longer or something after having been getting shorter).
Also it’s the winter solstice or whatever which is always nice (the days begin getting longer or something after having been getting shorter).
Then name it the Winter Solstice day and have it on December 21st. All that being said, the naming of a Federal holiday based upon a PARTICULAR religion’s holy day still seems to violate the separation of church and state.
Personally, I love Christmas. However, why should the Federal Government be pushing a religious holiday on people?
The point is that if one is going to attack Juneteenth for a particular reason, there are other holidays worth attacking as well. But again, I’m for more holidays — not less.
“the naming of a Federal holiday based upon a PARTICULAR religion’s holy day”
They didn’t “name” a federal holiday based upon a particular religion’s holy day. They just starting celebrating an already being celebrated holiday that was already pre-named. Derpa. How are you not getting this? It’s kind of like “juneteenth”, it was pre-named before the federal gov put it on the official list of celebrations recognized.
They just starting celebrating an already being celebrated holiday that was already pre-named. Derpa.
And how does that matter one iota to whether the Federal Holiday of “Christmas” is the endorsement of a one particular religion’s holy day? The government’s endorsement of one particular religion’s holy day being a violation of church and state.
Perhaps there is an answer to your question, Wt, in Justice O’Connor’s concurrence in Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 U.S. 668, 691 (1984) (“Celebration of public holidays, which have cultural significance even if they also have religious aspects, is a legitimate secular purpose”). In other words, despite all appearances, Christmas is no longer a uniquely Christian holiday in this country, so there is no Establishment Clause violation if the federal government classifies it as a federal holiday.
Also of potential relevance is the observation from the majority opinion that “[n]o significant segment of our society and no institution within it can exist in a vacuum or in total or absolute isolation from all the other parts,… [n]or does the Constitution require complete separation of church and state… .” Id. at 673.
Credit where credit is due: Greg’s point is solid, as the ‘separation’ aspect is NOT one of an absolutist aspect.
If it were so, there would be MANY items in violation – including the long historical Oath of Office.
In other words, despite all appearances, Christmas is no longer a uniquely Christian holiday in this country, so there is no Establishment Clause violation if the federal government classifies it as a federal holiday.
In other words, if someone else celebrates a Federal-(and State-)mandated holiday (i.e., no longer uniquely Christian holiday), we are going to turn a blind eye to this blatant violation of the separation of church and state.
So if we make Good Friday a holiday and non-Christians celebrate it (because, heck, it is a holiday that makes it a 3-day weekend so why not celebrate it?) it’s A-OK Constitutionally. I thought most people here were smart enough to recognize a fig leaf when one is presented.
[n]or does the Constitution require complete separation of church and state
It’s either separate or it isn’t. A binary rule is easy to apply. A rule that permits certain dabbling of the government into religious matters only begets more dabbling. Once these nominal intrusions (e.g., the “In God We Trust” on money among others) were allowed, it’ll become easier and easier to go bigger.
We are already starting to see that play out. In Texas, a bill is being considered that will require the 10 commandments to be prominently displayed in every classroom in the hopes that the current Supreme Court will bless it (pun intended). South Carolina, not to be upstaged, has a similar bill being considered. It won’t be long before the Supreme Court will allow public money to be used to fund private religious schools. When that happens, you’ll see a rush by certain states to defund public schools in favor of “school choice” which is just code for let’s fund our religious schools instead. What follows that?
In other words, if someone else celebrates a Federal-(and State-)mandated holiday (i.e., no longer uniquely Christian holiday), we are going to turn a blind eye to this blatant violation of the separation of church and state… I thought most people here were smart enough to recognize a fig leaf when one is presented.
If you are waiting for me to defend the Court’s logic in Lynch, you are going to be waiting a long time. I do not much care one way or the other, so I am neither going to defend Lynch nor join you in slagging it.
I will merely note that your argument joins the thrust of Justice Brennan’s dissent in Lynch (joined by Justices Marshall, Blackmun, and Stevens). This is a fine and defensible line of logic, but I am sure that I need not explain to you that a dissent is not the law.
You are, in other words, arguing what the law should be, not what the law is. Fair enough, of course. All of us find ourselves arguing that the law should be something other than what it is, at times.
Wt,
You already have the religion of the Woke being funded in public schools, and yet you are not only silent on that, you oft appear to defend that.
See (among many): link to open.spotify.com
Or is it only the Christian religions that you are against?
If Trumpy gets to be President again (whether by winning a fair election, winning a corrupt election run by his many followers who have become election officials, or by a successful violent overthrow of the government) he should just move the entire Patent Office to Beijing with satellite offices in Moscow and Pyongyang.
Don’t you know that Biden is the China allegiant, and that the “Russia” angle was the Clinton’s?
For all of his faults, “T” was not beholding to foreign powers.
“ “T” was not beholding to foreign powers.”
LOL — Billy showing his bare behind again. Such a goofy and pointless t w i t.
You have anything real to add there, Malcolm?
Didn’t think so.
MM bro, did you see biden’s latest shinanigan maneuvers? Remind me just how against SA you are again?
link to youtube.com
Hands off the goods old timer!
If you mean to argue here that Pres. Biden is a perv, you could well be right. It is not hard to find quite a lot of material on Google in which Pres. Biden appears to be behaving in a fairly perv-y manner.
The problem, as a voter, is that this does not actually make for a point of distinction between the two candidates. It is even easier to find instances of Trump behaving in a perv-y manner. Indeed, he rather famously confessed to his perv-y dispositions.
This is the same problem as when critics charge Biden with being senile, or Biden’s family of financial corruption. These charges seem undeniably accurate to me, but they are equally well even more emphatically accurate as applied to Pres. Trump. From a voter’s perspective, none of these charges give one a rational basis on which to choose between the two.
These are not two really great choices It would be best for the country if we were not reduced to picking between these two.
As between the two parties, the GOP will have the easier time choosing a nominee other than Trump than the Democrats will have in choosing a nominee other than Biden.* It would be a great favor to the country if the Republicans would nominate someone other than Trump.
* Totally off topic, here is my proposed solution to the Biden problem: Biden drops Harris from the ticket and names Barack Obama as his running mate instead. Then once Biden is re-elected and sworn in for his second term, he can announce his retirement, and we get a third Obama term.
“As between the two parties, the GOP will have the easier time choosing a nominee other than Trump than the Democrats will have in choosing a nominee other than Biden.”
What Greg omits is that this “ease” is a conscience choice of the puppet masters of Biden in the DNC.
Greg’s solution is a no-go. The puppet masters want to remain behind the scenes pulling the strings.
45 Quotes:
“Kim Jong Un has been, really, somebody that I’ve gotten to know very well and respect, and hopefully – and I really believe that, over a period of time, a lot of tremendous things will happen.”
*[Kim] wrote me beautiful letters and they’re great letters. We fell in love.”
“Thank you very much. It’s a great honor and privilege – because he’s become a friend of mine – to introduce President Erdogan of Turkey. He’s running a very difficult part of the world. He’s involved very, very strongly and, frankly, he’s getting very high marks.”
“And I like President Xi a lot. I consider him a friend, and – but I like him a lot. I’ve gotten to know him very well. He’s a strong gentleman, right? Anybody that – he’s a strong guy, tough guy.”
“Had a long and very good conversation with President Putin of Russia. As I have always said, long before the Witch Hunt started, getting along with Russia, China, and everyone is a good thing, not a bad thing….”
“It is always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man [Putin] so highly respected within his own country and beyond.”
That’s the tip of the iceberg, in case anyone besides Billy has doubts.
Another try…
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
June 20, 2023 at 7:44 am
Wow – that got caught in the filter…?
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
June 20, 2023 at 7:40 am
Lol — you think anything c0m1ng out of the m0uth of 45 can be taken at face value?
Chi 1d, w@ke up.
WT doesn’t know that all the elites nearly are like this (very few exceptions), 45 just does you a favor and lets you actually in on it. And it does actually help international relations.
Even in the middle of WW1, a good number of the monarchs involved literally all shared the same grandmother.
“It’s all a big club and you ain’t in it” -George Carlin
link to youtube.com
In any event, vote trump.
And it does actually help international relations.
Yet 45 dumped on England, Canada, Germany, France, NATO … all our closest allies. How did that help international relations?
In any event, vote trump.
If you don’t believe Ukraine should be an independent country … or Moldavia … or Latvia … or Estonia. Ronald Reagan is rolling in his grave over the Republican Party genuflecting to Putin and Russia. Then again, Lincoln is doing the same about Republicans and civil rights.
However, there is one person who is probably smiling in the afterlife – I hear Russia has a piece of his skull in Moscow.
“Then again, Lincoln is doing the same about Republicans and civil rights.”
Yep, those damm “R’s”
link to duckduckgo.com
LOL. Here in PA, dems run everything for elections. So, I think you just admitted that “it is he who counts the votes” that matters.
So, I think you just admitted that “it is he who counts the votes” that matters.
Just like Georgia?
Oh … and how did Kari Lake’s lawsuits fair in AZ? I recall you being very excited about those.
Last but not least … Fox did not pay $787M to Dominion because they (intentionally) misrepresented issues regarding election fraud. This is all fake news. Tucker Carlson being fired from Fox is also fake news … he is just on (very) extended leave.
I’m currently in Myrtle Beach on vacation. Not too far from me is Trump Super Store. Definitely not a cult.
I realize that the PTO is mandated to do this, but I really wish they’d spend their time (and our money) in getting their #$^&%* IT systems working properly instead of faffing around with docx and an electronic filing system that hiccups as much as a baby.
So how do you feel about money spent on race car advertisements?
Amen.
I don’t understand why they have regional offices at all, since it’s not like we’re told in which office a particular examiner works (if that examiner even works in an office and not from home). Nor can we do in-person visits to regional offices. Just relocate the entire PTO to an area of the country where housing prices are cheaper, like Detroit (where they already have a regional office). If they’re going to insist on regional offices, then have entire art units located in a single office. Splitting up art units and letting examiners telecommute messes up training and adversely affects examination quality.
Exactly. +1
+1
Caught in filter….
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
June 19, 2023 at 5:39 pm
New York Intelligencer should be more aptly named:
Sprint Left Gas-L1ghter.
Greg keeps on putting this pure propaganda into his head….
Yes, telecommuting has pretty much destroyed the need for regional offices, but it’s still nice to be able to fly to a regional office rather than schlep all the way to Alexandria.
” Just relocate the entire PTO to an area of the country where housing prices are cheaper”
The big wigs at the office need to be closer to the other bigger wigs in the federal gov. And they actually do go to other gov events and ceremonies etc.
Well, that’s really what’s important, right? The PTO director needs to be able to hobnob with other people in DC in order to line up the next job. The concerns of the thousands of patent and trademark applicants trying to protect their IP, who pay lots of money in fees to fund the office – those are minor blips compared to the need to keep the DC revolving door spinning.
The most natural place would be research triangle.
If not there, then I would say go whole hog and put it in Florida. Florida has a booming tech industry.
I can agree that the Research Triangle has a certain intuitive logic, but I think that Prof. Crouch’s counter-intuition is correct here. The whole point of a “regional” office is to make it easier for people who live at a distance from Alexandria VA to transact in-person business with the PTO. Locating a “regional office” within a 5-hour driving distance of the main office just does not achieve much by way of added convenience for any relevant party.
Certainly Florida is a sufficient remove from Alexandria. I was not aware, however, of FL as a tech hub. What Florida tech companies should we have in mind here? I like B’s suggestion of Nashville because there is a lot of aerospace and biotech in Nashville, and also in northern Alabama.
Actually, I think what should happen is the whole USPTO should pick up and go to a less expensive city. And that there shouldn’t be regional offices unless whole AUs are in other cities.
Makes sense to me. +1
Florida is the home of my favorite Irish politician, Mark O’Rubio.
And that fiendishly inventive cross-dressing politician, Rhonda Santis.
If they go to that state then it’s FlorIDS
Why not Raleigh-Durham?
If it goes to GA then you end up with Patlanta.
Arkansas is a very poor state and could use this revenue.
+1. Ditto for Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
Politics wise, the best choice might actually be Puerto Rico…though that might require a pen-and-phone interpretation.
Either huntsville or montgomery. That’s what I say. Atlanta not bad, but it’s already getting overgrown by a factor of 10 or so, traffic and all what have you.
War Eagle or Roll Tide?
I’d probably pick Jackson or Birmingham on the grounds they are poorer / need the ‘good jobs’ more.
Burmingham not bad also, tho Huntsville is a massive hub of engineers already should you need any. And Jackson gets a bit out west of many areas of the “south east”, tho not horrible.
Rather than simply throwing out names of cities, where are the inventors in that region concentrated (for the most recent decade of patent applications)? For example, one possibility not mentioned in the post above, is Raleigh-Durham- Chapel Hill, NC. Is there inventorship data available on this? That should be one important factor in deciding where to locate a regional office. Likewise, subject matter classifications of patents from the southeast region could inform which examining groups get assigned to this office.
Mentioned in the article:
“I would automatically rule-out Virginia and North Carolina as too close to the PTO HQ”
Yes, travel time is about 4 1/2 hours. Closeness (or distance) can indeed be one factor in the selection, but then I’d rule out most of Florida too (including Miami), as being located too far from much of the rest of the region. Centrality within the region would favor Nashville or Atlanta or possibly even Birmingham. Atlanta would gain accessibility points as being an airport hub. But my point was that locations where inventors are concentrated within this region should also be taken into account when making a selection.
Jacksonville, FL is only 25 miles from Georgia.