The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has announced plans to open several satellite offices in the U.S. this year.
Detroit has gotten the nod. Will Pittsburgh be next?
Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) joined local leaders this month, lobbying the U.S. Dept. of Commerce to select Pittsburgh. Groundbreaking discoveries at research institutions and partnerships between academia and industry have made the region "a hotbed for high-tech start-ups," Casey wrote in a letter to the Commerce Dept.
Locating the office here would bring 100 jobs and accelerate the growth of the innovation sector, especially in the areas of health care, robotics, regenerative medicine, defense, computer sciences and life sciences, Casey noted.
The effort to bring a satellite office to the region began last fall. The City of Pittsburgh submitted an application for the office through
PowerUp Pittsburgh, a taskforce convened by Mayor Ravenshahl to find ways to attract innovation and tech-driven growth to the city. The taskforce includes business, education and non-profit leaders.
In a letter to the Commerce Dept. this month, CMU President Dr. Jared Cohon noted that establishing a satellite office makes perfect sense based on the number of world class universities, startups, incubators and clusters in the region. Between 2006-2010, the region received more than $1 billion in federal research funding and generated over 2,900 patents.
It would be a "big boon" to the city and mutually beneficial in moving the region ahead, says Lenore Blum, of CMU's Project Olympus, an incubator for entrepreneurs. "Pittsburgh is a model for other regions across the country that are reinventing themselves," she says.
A satellite office would help to facilitate and accelerate patent applications, an often complicated and lengthy process for new companies. While the CMU Tech Transfer office offers support, a satellite office would expedite applications, Blum says.
Or would it add another level of bureaucracy? asked Ann Dugan, director of Pitt's Institute of Entrepreneurial Excellence, Katz School of Business. An office here would be a positive if it assisted inventors and entrepreneurs in navigating the process.
During last spring's Startup America roundtable at Chatham, local leaders expressed concerns about delays in applying to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Deputy Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Teresa Rae responded that the office is committed to hiring 1500 examiners in 2012 to facilitate the process.
Source: Sen. Bob Casey, Lenore Blum, CMU; Ann Dugan, Pitt