Detroit PTO Gets Into Gear

From Gary Speier (SLW Shareholder) The AIA authorizes the USPTO Director to establish three satellite offices within three years, the first of which is to be located in Detroit, Michigan.  The USPTO website indicates that hiring of patent examiners and support staff for the Detroit satellite office is slated to begin in the spring of 2012 with more than 100 new positions expected to be filled in the year. According to the AIA, the satellite office in Detroit will be designated as the “Elijah J. McCoy United States Patent and Trademark Office.”  Mr. McCoy was a Canadian-American inventor and engineer, who was notable for his fifty-seven U.S. patents, related mostly to the lubrication of steam engines.  The location of the first satellite office in Detroit should be well-received in an “all American” city that has fallen on tough economic times.  Regarding AIA as a jobs creation legislation, sadly this provision of the AIA is the only “real McCoy.”

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