
USPTO plans to open a new regional office and community outreach office
The USPTO will open a new regional office in the Atlanta, Georgia, metropolitan area serving innovators in the Southeast region, and a new community outreach office in Strafford County, New Hampshire, serving innovators in the New England region.
The Atlanta office is expected to be fully opened and operational by December 2025, the New Hampshire outreach office soon thereafter.
The creation of the new offices is part of the Unleashing American Innovators Act of 2022 (UAIA), signed into law in December 2022. Selection of the new regional office was based upon criteria in the UAIA that states the decision be based on several characteristics, including:
- The number of patent-intensive industries near the site.
- How many research-intensive institutions, including higher education institutions, are located near the site.
- The state and local government legal frameworks that support intellectual property-intensive industries located near the site.
- The proximity of the office to individual inventors, small businesses, veterans, low-income populations, students, rural populations, and any geographic group of innovators that are underrepresented in patent filings.
The decision on the location for the Northern New England community outreach office was based on the following criteria:
- Located in an area with at least one public and one private institution of higher education.
- In a jurisdiction with 15 or fewer registered patent attorneys.
- In a jurisdiction where women, minorities, and veteran-owned businesses comprise less than 45% of total business ownership.
The USPTO received more than 200 comments from the general public, USPTO employees, city and state officials, and the business community regarding possible new sites.