AURORA | Local inventors who want to patent their idea will soon be able to skip the trip to Alexandria, Va.
Metro Denver has been selected for one of three new regional United States Patent and Trademark Offices, the Commerce Department announced July 2.
“This is a well-deserved victory for the state of Colorado,” Sen. Michael Bennet said.
Bennet, along with Sen. Mark Udall and members of the state’s congressional delegation, had long lobbied for a satellite patent office in Colorado, saying the facility would be a boon to the state’s growing crop of local inventors and entrepreneurs.
Under the current system, the only place where inventors can get a patent for a new invention is at the Alexandria office, just outside Washington, D.C. Later this month the first satellite office will open in Detroit.
In 2014, offices are scheduled to open in Colorado, California and Texas.
It’s not clear where the new metro Denver location will be located.
Gov. John Hickenlooper said federal officials are expected to begin selecting where the office will be in the coming weeks.
State and local officials, including Hickenlooper and Bennet, chose the Anschutz Medical Campus for the press conference announcing the state’s selection, and officials say they expect Aurora, because of the campus and nearby Fitzsimons Life Science District, to be one of the cities considered to house the office.
“Everybody is going for it,” said Bryan Blakely, president of Accelerate Colorado. “Right now today we are just excited that it’s coming to the Denver metro area.”
Blakely, who is also vice president of the Aurora Economic Development Council, said that even if the office ends up in another city, it will be helpful for local inventors and entrepreneurs who want to protect their invention with a patent.
“It just provides much greater access for Colorado companies, and makes it that much easier for smaller companies, entrepreneurs in Colorado,” he said.
According to Accelerate Colorado, the new office will allow the Patent Office to more efficiently process patent applications and give Colorado companies increased access to file their intellectual property. The office’s headquarters in Alexandria, Va. has 1.2 million pending patent applications, including nearly 641,142 applications that have yet to receive a preliminary evaluation, the group said. The average time to first office action is 22.6 months, and the average time from filing to board decision is 85.3 months, a figure officials said the satellite offices could help cut.
Bennet said that the economy is facing serious structural issues, which is why wages and jobs haven’t grown while the overall economy has. To get wages and jobs to grow again, the economy needs a different approach.
“The way we are going to do that is through innovation,” Bennet said during Monday’s announcement.
Rep. Ed Perlmutter echoed that.
“Innovation is key to building the jobs of the future in Colorado and throughout the country. A patent office in Colorado will bring good jobs to our state, spur development of new ideas and ensure we make things in America again,” he said in a statement.
Officials estimated the office will pump more than $440 million into the state’s economy.
Anything positive is good for Colorado. A patent office would surely add commerce, i.e., educated employees, more people traffic for businesses and add to the image of the State. Kudos to Senator Bennet.