Any Federal employee and anyone in the private sector who does business with the Federal government is facing a period of uncertainty and forced career change. With mass Federal layoffs and confirmation of Cabinet secretaries of non-existent or frankly troubling credentials, the intent appears to be that large portions of government will disappear and others will grind to a halt.
But where is the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in all this?
The USPTO is a Federal agency, under the Department of Commerce. The 10,000+ member patent examining corps and all of the support staff are Federal employees. As such, USPTO employees are subject to the broad-brush efforts of the Administration to reduce the Federal workforce – the USPTO’s effort to hire an additional 1,600 examiners this year has been stopped by the federal hiring freeze.
However, the patent examining corps is not subject to some of the executive orders, such as the return-to-the-office mandate. The examiners are expressly exempted by the Commerce Department’s implementation of the order and also are subject to collective bargaining agreements that guarantee remote work. The management level’s supervisory patent examiners (SPEs) are not subject to collective bargaining agreements and will be forced to go to a USPTO office. No word on how many experienced SPEs have chosen to resign instead.
The USPTO appears to have a role in accomplishing tasks laid out in other executive orders. The “America First trade policy” includes implications for the USPTO – Section 3(e) says that the Department of Commerce (which includes the USPTO) will “assess the status of United States intellectual property rights such as patents, copyrights, and trademarks … to ensure reciprocal and balanced treatment of intellectual property rights with the PRC [Peoples Republic of China].” This statement assumes, of course, that intellectual property rights will continue to exist and to be created in the new Administration. Section 4(c) provides that “…the Secretary of Commerce shall assess and make recommendations regarding how to maintain, obtain, and enhance our Nation’s technological edge… .” Fluff, of course, but fluff that requires patents.
While some of the Administration’s Cabinet-level appointments have been, ahem, questionable, the picks for Secretary of Commerce and Director of the USPTO are highly qualified. Howard Lutnick, the new Secretary of Commerce, was CEO of brokerage Cantor Fitzgerald. He’s named as an inventor on some 274 U.S. patents and published applications, some of which were declared unenforceable under the confused and inconsistent law of patentable subject matter. Maybe he’s the man to fix that long-term problem.
John Squires is rumored to be the leading candidate for Director of the USPTO. He’s a partner at the Dilworth Paxson law firm and a former chief intellectual property counsel at Goldman Sachs.
Agree or disagree with the new leadership at the USPTO, at least it won’t be incompetent.
— Robert Yarbrough, Esq.