Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet today celebrated the opening of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) new satellite office in downtown Denver. Bennet coordinated the state’s bipartisan effort to bring the satellite office to Colorado.
“Colorado is leading the charge for the country’s innovation economy because we have people and businesses that have discovery and exploration woven into their DNA,” Bennet said. “From the 19th century gold prospectors who charted their own course through the Rocky Mountain West, to the modern-day entrepreneurs who are blazing new trails through fields like bioscience, clean energy, high-tech, and advanced manufacturing, our state has always been led by genius visionaries and fearless risk-takers who dared to dream big.
“Denver’s selection as a satellite patent office location is recognition of that reputation and trend, and today begins Colorado’s chapter in the centuries-old story of the world’s great intellectual property system,” Bennet added. “The office will strengthen our state’s economic recovery. Bringing resources like the USPTO closer to innovators is one step towards tying job and wage growth to economic growth.”
Bennet’s efforts to bring the satellite office to Colorado included securing an amendment in the 2011 patent reform law directing the USPTO to establish three satellite offices nationwide, working with the state’s business community and local governments to attract the office, and leading several letters from Colorado’s Congressional delegation urging the Administration and the USPTO to choose Colorado as a location for a satellite office.
Located in the Byron G. Rogers Federal Building, the Denver satellite office is in the process of hiring patent trial judges and patent examiners – creating new, high-skilled jobs in the Rocky Mountain region.