Overnight, as the federal government shutdown officially began, another federal closure was announced: the Denver office of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
The Rocky Mountain Regional Outreach Office, which opened in the city in 2014, came out of the America Invents Act in 2011 as the federal agency targeting inventors and innovation and moved to expand outside of the Washington, D.C., area to connect inventors and patent filers to the USPTO, as well as improve patent examiner retention.
Few details were shared in a news release Wednesday announcing the closure, but the agency said that a “typical regional office requires more than $1 million of leased office space and overhead expenses,” and that the Denver office employee count had dropped to “less than 10,” at the end of last year.
No date for the planned closure was announced, but with the federal government shutdown starting, a note on the agency’s website said, “At present, the USPTO will remain open and fully operational until further notice under operating reserves from the prior year’s fee collections.”
The Rocky Mountain regional office was responsible for a nine-state region spanning Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Utah.
Regional director Molly Kocialski, who took on the role in 2016, surprised many when she stepped down in early September.
Molly Kocialski, director of the Rocky Mountain Regional United States Patent and Trademark Office, speaks during a news conference celebrating the office’s fifth anniversary on Friday, Aug. 30, 2019. (Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun)In an earlier story, she told The Sun that she had loved the job and the outreach to inventors, patent examiners and community groups. But, she added, “It became really clear over the last, especially, I’d say, the last four or five months that the outreach job was changing. The expectations of that job was outreach was only going to be intellectual property basics. And that’s great but you don’t need a 30-year practitioner to do that.”
The news release also pointed to a December 2024 report to Congress that called the “physical office space is less necessary” since the agency had “successful and data-driven telework policies,” combined with the increase in virtual education and plans to establish community outreach offices.
“The closure of this office is consistent with that assessment,” the agency said.
None of the other regional offices — Detroit, Dallas, San Jose and Alexandria — have been similarly impacted. The Colorado Sun has reached out to the USPTO for comment.
By the time Kocialski left the job, she said the number of staff and patent examiners had increased to 354 in the Rocky Mountain region with about 230 in Colorado. Most worked remotely and did not work in the office, which was inside the Byron G. Rogers Federal Building at 1961 Stout St. in Denver.
Before the agency opened the office in Denver, the staff and patent examiners were located near the Alexandria headquarters.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
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