The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) opened its fourth regional office on Monday November 9, in Dallas, Texas. The Texas Regional Office will serve states through the south central tier of the United States: Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. Located in the Terminal Annex Federal Building in Dallas, the new office will also create over 100 new jobs for highly skilled professionals, including patent examiners and Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) judges.

"This office means that applicants won’t have to fly across the country to do business with our nation’s innovation agency,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO Michelle K. Lee. “Applicants will be able to come to this regional office, in their own backyard, in a city that exemplifies the can–do entrepreneurial spirit that made our nation great.”

Speakers at the ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open the office included Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, U.S. Representatives Eddie Bernice Johnson, Pete Sessions, and Marc Veasey. The ceremony also featured Julio Palmaz, National Inventors Hall of Fame inductee and inventor of the intravascular stent.

The USPTO started expanding its presence across the country in 2012. The first regional office to open was the Elijah J. McCoy Office in Detroit, followed by the Rocky Mountain Regional Office in Denver, the West Coast Regional Office in San Jose, and now the Texas Regional Office in Dallas. Each of these offices serves as a hub for its region, bringing long lasting benefits and resources to the doorsteps of innovators, and helping entrepreneurs advance their cutting-edge ideas to the marketplace. The opening of the Texas Regional Office represents a historic moment in completing the establishment of these USPTO offices.