uspto satelliteIn recent months there has been much discussion of the USPTO’s decision to open satellite offices in Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, and Silicon Valley. The Detroit office opened in July 2012 and hosts about fifty examiners and ten administrative patent judges (APJs). A location has been selected for the Dallas-Fort Worth office and the site selection process is underway for the Silicon Valley Office.

As currently managed, the satellite offices are designed to process patent applications, i.e., ex parte prosecution and appeals therefrom. Post grant patent proceedings, save perhaps some patent reissue proceedings, will remain at the USPTO main campus in Alexandria Virginia. That is, the new patentability trials of the America Invents Act (AIA), patent reexamination, supplemental examination and derivation proceedings will be processed at the main campus in Alexandria. Patent reexamination and supplemental examination proceedings are handled at the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) and the Trial Section of the Patent Trial & Appeal Board (PTAB) handle contested proceedings of the AIA.  There do not appear to be any current plans to migrate Contested Proceedings or CRU functionality to satellite offices.