As part of the Unleashing American Innovators Act of 2022, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced in December 2023 that it will open a Southeast regional office in Atlanta, Georgia.
The purpose of the regional office is to serve both the local community, through connection with innovators, and the USPTO through better recruitment, increased examiner and administrative judge retention, and overall improved speed and quality of the patent examination process. The Atlanta Southeast regional office is expected to be open and operational by December 2025.
The USPTO considered innovation-centric criteria in selecting Atlanta, including the number of patent-intensive industries; the number of research-intensive institutions, including higher education institutions; the state and local government legal frameworks that support intellectual property-intensive industries; and the proximity of the office to individual inventors, small businesses, veterans, low-income populations, students, rural populations, and any geographic group of innovators that are underrepresented in patent filings.
In its press release on December 13, 2023, the USPTO credited "Atlanta's growing and diverse economy, along with many federal and private resources available for startup and innovators" as making Atlanta the top contender for the new office.
In addition, the USPTO recognized that Atlanta "has an active and highly ranked research development community with five Tier 1 research universities, one of the top-tier Veterans Administration research hospitals in the nation, and the Center for Disease Control."
The Atlanta community is excited to be selected for the USPTO's next regional office and expects the presence of the office to have an overwhelmingly positive impact on the innovative community Atlanta has been fostering for decades.
Economic and educational powerhouse
As the USPTO properly credited, Atlanta is known internationally as an innovative hub with universities, government research institutions, and businesses of all industries and sizes.
It is home to 57 colleges and universities; academic, government, and private research centers and institutions; and a dynamic startup ecosystem. Atlanta is a vibrant gateway to the Southeast region as the home to the busiest international airport in the world that is also within a two-hour flight of 80% of US metro areas.
It serves as the global headquarters for 31 Fortune 500 and 1,000 businesses, the US or North American headquarters for over 330 international companies, and is home to more than 150 public companies.
In terms of diversity, one of the USPTO's stated goals, Atlanta is one of the most diverse and highly educated metropolitan areas in the US. Among the nation's 10 largest metropolitan areas, Atlanta ranks first in the percentage of Black-owned employers and second (after Washington, DC) in the percentage of female-owned employers.
Atlanta also has a recognized quality of life that will facilitate the recruitment and retention of examiners and administrative judges from economically, geographically, and demographically diverse backgrounds.
Georgia is home to four top Historically Black Colleges and Universities and ranks as the sixth region in the US for technology degrees awarded. With 42% of the population having a bachelor's degree or higher and 51% of the population identifying as Black, Hispanic, or Asian, Atlanta has one of the most diverse educated workforces in the US.
In terms of the intellectual property legal community, Georgia is home to more than 1,000 registered patent attorneys and agents, about 24% of whom are women (as compared to 21.8% overall), about 9.9% are racial minorities (as compared to 6.8% overall), and about 2.12% are racially diverse women (as compared to about 2.2% overall) (Diversity in Patent Law: A Data Analysis of Diversity in the Patent Practice by Technology Background and Region (2020)).
Warm welcome to patent examiners and judges
The Atlanta community is confident that the addition of the Southeast regional office to its community will further foster its diverse and innovative culture, attracting new businesses, startups, research initiatives, and talent.
Adding patent examiners and administrative judges to the community will also bolster the impact the Atlanta community has on patent policy and initiatives in the coming years. Local intellectual property organizations like the Georgia IP Alliance, the Atlanta Bar IP Section, and the Georgia Bar IP Section are also looking forward to the opportunity to have representatives from the new office participate in their events and initiatives.
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