For the first time, the United States Patent and Trademark office (the PTO) is expanding its operations outside the Washington, DC area. Starting with its new office in Detroit on July 13, the PTO will be following with new offices in Dallas, Denver, and Silicon Valley. According to the PTO’s website:
Intellectual property protection and innovation are engines of economic growth and the bedrock of America’s private sector.
…
These new offices are an historic step toward further advancing our world’s best IP system, and reinforcing the United States as the number one destination for innovation capital, and research and development around the world.
The purpose of the new regional sites is to enable the PTO to draw from a bigger pool of IP talent and “reduce the backlog of unexamined patents, and speed up the overall process, allowing businesses to move their innovation to market more quickly, and giving them more room to create new jobs.”
Sounds good to me.