On the first day of a government shutdown, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it will close one of its regional offices and lay off employees.
USPTO announced Wednesday that it will permanently close the Rocky Mountain Regional Outreach Office in Denver, Colorado.
In an email obtained by Federal News Network, John Squires, USPTO director and the under secretary of commerce for intellectual property, told employees that the agency will undergo a reduction in force. About 1% of the agency’s 14,000-employee workforce received RIF notices.
Squires told employees that the reduction in force “is intended to focus resources on core operations and is not a reflection of anyone’s service, performance or conduct.”
“Know that the decisions behind the changes announced were made after full and careful deliberation and the actions were taken with the utmost consideration for our workforce, stakeholders, and to be in full alignment with both the agency’s unique mission and the dynamic future that lies ahead,” Squires wrote.
Federal News Network has reached out to USPTO for comment. Some employees within the agency’s communications department, however, have received RIF notices.
“No doubt these changes are difficult. But I will be in touch over the next few days and weeks to discuss how they impact us,” Squires added.
It’s not entirely clear why USPTO is proceeding with layoffs. The agency is fee-funded and remains open during lapses in congressional funding.
The agency’s website states that, “at present, the USPTO will remain open and fully operational until further notice under operating reserves from the prior year’s fee collections.”
Congress failed to avert a government shutdown Tuesday evening. A short-term stopgap funding bill did not pass the Senate on Wednesday morning.
The Trump administration has threatened layoffs if a shutdown occurred. The Office of Management and Budget told agencies last week to plan on additional reductions in force across programs that are on hold during a shutdown, that don’t have alternative sources of funding and are “not consistent with the president’s priorities.”
President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that he’s in favor of shutdown-related RIFs to the federal workforce, and that “when you shut it down, you have to do layoffs.”
“A lot of good can come down from shutdowns,” Trump said. “We can get rid of a lot of things that we didn’t want.”
USPTO wrote in a press release that the “typical regional office requires more than $1 million of leased office space and overhead expenses,” and that, as of December 2024, fewer than 10 employees were in the office at the Rocky Mountain location.
Before the Trump administration, very few USPTO employees worked in the office. In a fiscal 2023 report, about 96% of eligible employees teleworked, and many working from home five days a week.
The 2011 Leahy-Smith America Invents Act authorized USPTO to create three or more satellite offices. In addition to its regional office in Denver, it has regional offices in Detroit; Dallas; San Jose, California; and Alexandria, Virginia.
The 2022 Unleashing American Innovators Act expanded USPTO’s real estate footprint by requiring a new type of office, the community outreach office, along with an additional regional office in the Southeast.
“The offices were established to increase outreach activities to better connect patent filers and innovators with the USPTO, enhance patent examiner retention, improve the recruitment of patent examiners, decrease the number of patent applications waiting for examination, and improve the quality of patent examination,” USPTO wrote. “Over time, the purpose of the offices has shifted to an outreach function and the offices were rebranded as ‘regional outreach offices’ and the office leaders as ‘regional outreach directors.’”
If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email jheckman@federalnewsnetwork.com, or reach out on Signal at jheckman.29
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