United States Department of Commerce
Executive department of the U.S. Federal Government
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| February 2024 | USPTO issued new guideline stating that only a human, not AI, can be named as an inventor on a patent, following a recommendation by the Biden administration. |
| December 16 2022 | Kathi Vidal announced Vaishali Udupa as the new commissioner for patents, effective January 17, 2023. |
| April 13 2022 | Kathi Vidal was sworn in as USPTO director. |
| October 2021 | President Joe Biden nominated attorney Kathi Vidal to serve as the USPTO director. |
| August 2020 | The USPTO experienced the highest month of trademark filings in its history. |
| July 2020 | Trademark application filings increased to exceed the previous year's numbers. |
| March 2020 | COVID-19 lockdowns initially led to reduced trademark application filings during the spring. |
| 2018 | The USPTO received a record 458,103 new trademark applications, demonstrating continued expansion in trademark registrations. |
| June 19 2018 | 10 millionth U.S. patent issued to Joseph Marron for a Coherent LADAR System, signed by President Donald Trump in a special Oval Office ceremony. |
| 2017 | One in every nine trademark applications reviewed by the U.S. Trademark Office originated in China. |
| 2015 | USPTO opened its Silicon Valley satellite office located in San Jose City Hall, after previously being put on hold due to budget sequestration. |
| 2014 | Trademark applications increased to 345,000 new applications, showing continued growth in trademark registrations. |
| 2013 | Trademark applications from China began a significant growth trajectory, which would lead to a more than 12-fold increase by 2017. |
| 2012 | The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) launched an internal investigation into allegations of fraud by employees exploiting the agency's remote work policies. Investigators found that some patent examiners had misrepresented their working hours, but high-level officials obstructed access to computer records, which limited the potential disciplinary actions against fraudulent employees. |
| December 2012 | Data revealed 597,579 unexamined patent applications in the backlog, though a more than 50% reduction had been achieved since 2009. |
| July 13 2012 | USPTO opened its first satellite office in Detroit to reduce patent application backlog and reflect regional industrial strengths. |
This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia article United States Patent and Trademark Office, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.