“The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)”

Every nation-state has its own well-organized and institutionalized agencies for the purpose of carrying out functions and purposes related to intellectual property rights. In the same way, the United States of America have their own independent agency which is responsible for efficient management of intellectual property rights. The USPTO is an agency under the U.S. Department of Commerce for the purpose of functions related to intellectual property rights i.e., the issuance of patents to the newly, made inventions, and innovations, registration of a trademark, and the identification of any kind of property related to Intellectual property rights.

The office of the United States Patent and Trademark Office has been headquartered at Alexandria Campus. The primary intent of the office is for maintaining appropriate and permanent historical records of all the files related to patent applications, trademark, and design registrations. The foremost objective of the office is for promoting industrial and technological progress in the United States and for strengthening the national economy of the country. The agency has been responsible for the administration of the laws related to patents, trademarks, and any other intellectual property rights; advisory consultations to the department of commerce for carrying out the functions on the administration of patent, trademark, and copyright, and on trade-related matters. The agency accepts the applications of both trademarks and patents in the form of in-office applications and online applications.

The mission of the USPTO

USPTO aims to promote industrial and technological development in the United States and make the national economy stronger. The USPTO does so in the following ways:

i. Administering Patent and Trademark laws.

ii. Providing advice to the Secretary of Commerce, the United States President and the administrators of Patent, Trademark and Copyright protection

iii. Advising upon the Trade-Related Aspects of the Intellectual Properties

Management of Patent

The USPTO saw its first patent issuing on July 31, 1790.

Each year, the USPTO issues over 150,000 Patents internationally to both companies and independent investors.

The ten millionth United States Patent was issued on June 19th, 2018.

Management of Trademark

i. There are 5 different filing bases for trademarks under the USPTO, namely- usage in commerce, the intent of use, foreign registration, foreign application, and international registration.

ii. If the trademarks meet the minimum criteria for registration, they are then registered either on Principal or the Supplemental Register.

iii. Trademark registration has grown from 296,490 new applications in 2000 to 458,103 new applications in 2018.

iv. August 2020 saw the highest filing in a month in the entire history of the USPTO.