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Home | BakerHostetler

Teresa Goody Guillén Speaks on Two Panels at World Economic Forum

The Bargaining Table

‘You’re Fired’: Trump Takes Aim at the NLRB

Daniel Kaufman, Victoria Weatherford Present at Consumer and Unfair Competition Law Institute

IP Intelligence Report

Potential Effects of the Trump Administration’s First Actions on the USPTO

Two of President Donald Trump’s first actions – an order for federal workers to return to the office and a hiring freeze – stand to affect federal agencies across the board. Although the ultimate results of these actions remain to be seen, these actions could have particular effects on the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

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First, Trump issued a presidential memorandum (PM) titled “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/return-to-in-person-work/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Return to In-Person Work</a>” directing all agency heads “to take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person” with the caveat that agency heads may make “exemptions they deem necessary.”<a id="_ednref1" href="#_edn1">[1]</a>

In providing guidance to implement the PM, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) instructed all agency heads to revise their telework programs to terminate telework, notify employees of their intent to comply with the PM and notify OPM of their compliance by 5 p.m. on Jan. 24.<a href="#_edn2" id="_ednref2">[2]</a> OPM also stated that if an employee’s duty station is more than 50 miles away from the USPTO, the agency should take appropriate steps to move the duty station to the most appropriate office, with a target date around the end of February for full compliance. In accordance with this guidance, the USPTO on Jan. 24 issued a memorandum to all USPTO employees stating “[t]he USPTO no longer permits regular and recurring telework. Employees should work full time at their respective worksites/duty stations” but also stating the memorandum “does not supersede existing collective bargaining agreements.”<a href="#_edn3" id="_ednref3">[3]</a> But on Jan. 27, OPM also requested agencies “to bring any relevant Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs) into compliance with the new PM.”<a href="#_edn4" id="_ednref4">[4]</a>

These actions may particularly affect the USPTO because 96 percent of USPTO employees have a telework agreement, about 9,000 of which employees are patent examiners working full time from their remote duty stations.<a href="#_edn5" id="_ednref5">[5]</a> The USPTO offers three full-time telework programs for its patent examiners, including the Telework Enhancement Act Program (TEAP), which allows examiners to work anywhere within the United States outside 50 miles from the USPTO.<a href="#_edn6" id="_ednref6">[6]</a> The USPTO is also uniquely situated as TEAP is the only federal telework program specifically codified by statute and requires the employee to be located outside the commuting zone of the USPTO in order to participate.<a href="#_edn7" id="_ednref7">[7]</a> Further, all these telework programs are part of the CBA between the USPTO and the Patent Office Professional Association signed in December 2024, which agreement currently extends to 2029.<a href="#_edn8" id="_ednref8">[8]</a>

Office space at the USPTO has been significantly reduced. For example, as of August 2024, the USPTO relinquished two of its buildings at its main campus in Alexandria, Virginia, and the USPTO’s five other regional offices are even smaller.<a href="#_edn9" id="_ednref9">[9]</a> The USPTO has also saved an estimated $30 million by reducing its office space.<a href="#_edn10" id="_ednref10">[10]</a> Further, as some examiners live as far away as Alaska and Hawaii, retention of employees may become a concern if all USPTO employees are forced to return to in-office work.

Second, on Jan. 20, Trump issued a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/hiring-freeze/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hiring Freeze</a> memorandum covering all federal civilian employee positions.<a id="_ednref11" href="#_edn11">[11]</a> This action could also hamper the USPTO’s ongoing efforts to reduce application pendency, which were implemented to comply with the provisions of patent term adjustment mandated by Congress.<a id="_ednref12" href="#_edn12">[12]</a> Presently, the pendency for an application until the first mailed office action sits at 20.3 months, which is a substantial increase from a pendency of 14.8 months in 2020.<a id="_ednref13" href="#_edn13">[13]</a>,<a id="_ednref14" href="#_edn14">[14]</a> As hiring has been central to the USPTO’s plan to decrease the overall pendency of patent applications and to reduce the patent application backlog, a hiring freeze could impact those efforts.<a id="_ednref15" href="#_edn15">[15]</a>

Given the above, the USPTO may very well decide telework, at least for TEAP, is an exemption it deems necessary. But if the USPTO is ultimately required to terminate all these telework agreements, the agency would likely face legal challenges and encounter practical limitations related to its ability to retain employees and reduce the ever-increasing backlog of patent applications. Additionally, if the USPTO’s efforts to timely review patent and trademark applications are impacted substantially, the national economy could feel the effects. In fact, the USPTO estimated that in 2019, industries that intensively use intellectual property made up 41 percent of the domestic economic activity and directly supported around 33 percent of all U.S. employment.<a href="#_edn16" id="_ednref16">[16]</a> Although the ultimate implications of the administration’s actions remain unknown, practitioners and applicants may at least see an increase in the USPTO’s pendency delays and patent application backlog.

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<a id="_edn1" href="#_ednref1">[1]</a> Presidential Memorandum on Return to In-Person Work (Jan. 20, 2025), <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/return-to-in-person-work/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/return-to-in-person-work/</a>.

<a id="_edn2" href="#_ednref2">[2]</a> Off. of Pers. Mgmt., Memorandum on Guidance on Presidential Memorandum Return to In-Person Work (Jan. 22, 2025), <a href="https://chcoc.gov/sites/default/files/OPM%20Return%20to%20Office%20Guidance%20Memorandum%201-22-25.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://chcoc.gov/sites/default/files/OPM%20Return%20to%20Office%20Guidance%20Memorandum%201-22-25.pdf</a>.

<a id="_edn3" href="#_ednref3">[3]</a> Annelise Levy, Trump Return-to-Office Order Faces Big Exemption at Patent Office, Bloomberg Law (Jan. 27, 2025), <a href="https://www.bloomberglaw.com/bloomberglawnews/ip-law/X23QD65S000000?bna_news_filter=ip-law#jcite" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.bloomberglaw.com/bloomberglawnews/ip-law/X23QD65S000000?bna_news_filter=ip-law#jcite</a>.

<a id="_edn4" href="#_ednref4">[4]</a> Off. of Pers. Mgmt., Memorandum on Agency Return to Office Implementation Plans (Jan. 27, 2025), <a href="https://chcoc.gov/sites/default/files/Joint%20OMB%20OPM%20Memorandum%20re%20Return%20to%20Office%20Implementation%20Plans%201-27-2025%20FINAL.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://chcoc.gov/sites/default/files/Joint%20OMB%20OPM%20Memorandum%20re%20Return%20to%20Office%20Implementation%20Plans%201-27-2025%20FINAL.pdf</a>.

<a id="_edn5" href="#_ednref5">[5]</a> USPTO, 2023 Telework Annual Report 6-7 (2023), <a href="https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/TAR_2023.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/TAR_2023.pdf</a>.

<a id="_edn6" href="#_ednref6">[6]</a> Pat. Off. Pro. Org., Patents Fulltime Telework Program 2022 (Feb. 7, 2022), <a href="http://popa.org/static/media/uploads/uploads/2022/Patents_Fulltime_Telework2022.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://popa.org/static/media/uploads/uploads/2022/Patents_Fulltime_Telework2022.pdf</a>.

<a href="#_ednref7" id="_edn7">[7]</a> 5 U.S.C. §§ 5711(f)(2)-(5) (stating the “Patent and Trademark Office shall conduct a program under this subsection” as part of a telework travel expense program).

<a id="_edn8" href="#_ednref8">[8]</a> USPTO and Pat. Off. Pro. Org., Collective Bargaining Agreement (2024), <a href="http://popa.org/static/media/uploads/CBA/popa_agreement.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://popa.org/static/media/uploads/CBA/popa_agreement.pdf</a>.

<a id="_edn9" href="#_ednref9">[9]</a> USPTO, Memorandum on Advance Notice of Change to MPEP – Updating Addresses Based on Relinquishment of the Randolph and Remsen Buildings (Oct. 2, 2024), <a href="https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/memo-mpep-oct2024.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/memo-mpep-oct2024.pdf</a>.

<a href="#_ednref10" id="_edn10">[10]</a> Id.

<a id="_edn11" href="#_ednref11">[11]</a> Presidential Memorandum on Hiring Freeze (Jan. 20, 2025), <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/hiring-freeze/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/hiring-freeze/</a>.

<a href="#_ednref12" id="_edn12">[12]</a> 35 U.S. Code § 154(b) (establishing a Patent Term Guarantee for administrative delays “due to the failure of the Patent and Trademark Office”).

<a id="_edn13" href="#_ednref13">[13]</a> Patents Pendency Data December 2024, USPTO (2024), <a href="https://www.uspto.gov/dashboard/patents/pendency.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.uspto.gov/dashboard/patents/pendency.html</a>.

<a id="_edn14" href="#_ednref14">[14]</a> USPTO, FY 2020 Performance and Accountability Report 22 (2020), <a href="https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/USPTOFY20PAR.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/USPTOFY20PAR.pdf</a>.

<a id="_edn15" href="#_ednref15">[15]</a> Derrick Brent, Patent pendency goals: A road map for the future, USPTO (Jan. 17, 2025), <a href="https://www.uspto.gov/blog/patent-pendency-goals-road-map-future" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.uspto.gov/blog/patent-pendency-goals-road-map-future</a>.

<a id="_edn16" href="#_ednref16">[16]</a> USPTO, Intellectual property and the U.S. economy: Third edition iii (2019), <a href="https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/uspto-ip-us-economy-third-edition.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/uspto-ip-us-economy-third-edition.pdf</a>.

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