The Denver satellite office of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will officially open on June 30, 2014. This is exciting news for Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck clients and the broader Denver and Rocky Mountain community for several reasons.

Brownstein’s clients can take advantage of having the Patent Office and their patent attorneys located in a geographic area with a less expensive legal market than the Patent Office’s main operations in Arlington, Va. The new facility located in the Byron G. Rogers Federal Building in downtown Denver has high-quality teleconferencing equipment for examiner interviews, providing easier access to decision makers at the Patent Office. These interviews are often used to help an examiner understand the technology and basis of an invention, and are helpful in identifying issues that can be addressed in such a way as to get subject matter allowed as a patent. In-person interviews have, in the past, required travel by the inventor and his counsel to the Patent Office in Virginia, or otherwise to talk by phone. Thus, the ability to teleconference within the Patent Office’s system will provide a more efficient and useful option for communicating with an examiner. The satellite office also includes a hearing room for holding various proceedings including the newly established post-grant proceedings under the America Invents Act (AIA). And finally, the satellite office will have a room and system dedicated to research on prior art and publications with free public access that is equal to the exact searching capabilities and system the examiners themselves utilize.