USPTO Detroit office looking to hire

Back in January, The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced a location for its first-ever satellite office, to be named in honor Elijah J. McCoy.

Now it’s looking for people to run it.

According to a news release, the USPTO plans to hire more than 100, including patent examiners and Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences judges. It hopes to fill more than 50 percent of those positions by summer’s end. 

“The fact that they are hiring telecom and computer administrative law judges in addition to mechanical and electrical is good news — means Detroit really is getting a full-fledge ‘mini-patent office’ and something that recognizes we are more than cars,” Software patent attorney Charles A. Bieneman of Rader, Fishman & Grauer PLLC said in an email.

The patent examiner and judge positions are:

• Patent examiner — mechanical engineer

• Patent examiner — electrical engineer

• Administrative Patent Judge — Communication, Computer, and/or Electrical

• Administrative Patent Judge — Mechanical

Detroit patent office location announced, set for July opening

Attention, Michigan patent attorneys: Put the Detroit address of 300 River Place Drive into your database immediately.

That’s where the Elijah J. McCoy United States Patent and Trademark Office will be located, the USPTO announced Wednesday.

Scheduled for a July 2012 opening, the 31,000-square-foot office — the USPTO’s first-ever satellite branch — will be housed in the former home to Parke-Davis Laboratories and the Stroh’s Brewery Headquarters, just east of downtown Detroit. More than 100 jobs are expected to be created for the office’s first year.

Bob Stoll, the USPTO’s commissioner for patents, mentioned in a conference last year that the distribution of work at the satellite offices would be based on expertise in specific areas, such as mechanical engineering and materials science, to tie in with Michigan’s automotive and life science industries.

The office is the result of last year’s Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, which calls for the USPTO to launch at least two other satellite examination offices besides Detroit within three years.

The USPTO has called for public comments regarding these additional satellite offices. They can be submitted by Jan. 30 at satelliteoffices@uspto.gov.