Silicon Valley Regional Office: In the Heart of Tech
Opened on October 15, 2015, the USPTO’s Silicon Valley Regional Office (SVRO) is appropriately housed in one of the area’s most impressive technological triumphs: San Jose City Hall, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Richard Meier and built in 2005.
Located in city hall’s Wing Building, the West Coast regional office serves California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Alaska, and Hawaii.
Attendees can sit in on Patent Trial and Appeal Board proceedings at this location. The PTAB conducts trials, including inter partes, post-grant, and covered business method patent reviews and derivation proceedings. It also hears appeals from adverse examiner decisions in patent applications and reexamination proceedings, and renders decisions in interferences.
Among events hosted by the office this November are four Path to a Patent installments and three Trademark Basics Boot Camp modules. Both are virtual events.
Path to a Patent themes: Learn how to draft a patent application, November 2; Understanding the role of claims in a patent application, November 9; Learn how to protect your IP abroad, November 16; and How to file a patent application using Patent Center, November 30. Boot camp subjects: Responding to an office action; Keeping your registration alive; and a question-and-answer panel. They will be November 7, 14, and 21, respectively. All Path to a Patent and Trademark Basic Boot Camp sessions will be from 2 to 3:30 p.m. ET.
The SVRO welcomed a new regional director on September 19. Mary Fuller is to carry out the strategic direction of Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO Kathi Vidal, as well as ensuring the USPTO’s initiatives and programs are tailored to the region’s unique ecosystem of industries and stakeholders.
Fuller will lead the region’s outreach efforts to expand America’s innovation ecosystem and serve the area’s nearly 70,000 patent holders and 500,000-plus trademark registrants.
For a listing of November events at the Silicon Valley Regional Office, see uspto.gov/about-us/uspto-locations/silicon-valley-ca/silicon-valley-uspto-events.