U.S. Department of Commerce officials are scheduled to visit Denver next week to kick off an accelerated site selection process for a regional U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in the area.
The agency announced Monday that Denver, Dallas, and California’s Silicon Valley have each been selected for a much-coveted satellite office to go along with a Detroit location opening July 13.
Denver-area business and civic leaders publicly trumpeted collaboration as a key to victory. Privately, individual cities are angling to serve as home to an office expected to , including $390 million in metro Denver.
Potential sites have been identified for federal officials, including Denver’ s Stapleton neighborhood and Aurora’s Colorado Science + Technology Park at Fitzsimmons.
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said Monday that the search is on for the “right sweet spot” for the patent office.
By law, Commerce officials have to open three patent satellite offices by Sept. 16, 2014. They hope to open all four offices, including Denver, by that date, though it may take another year to get all four built out.
Over the past three years, officials involved in Colorado’s patent office proposal have submitted possible locations to the Commerce Department based on the characteristics of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office headquarters in Alexandria, Va.
“It’s a campus-like environment with five buildings arranged in a quad with underground tunnels that connect them,” said Tom Franklin, an attorney with Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP who has been involved with the Denver proposal. “With that in mind, we started speculating about areas.”
Denver’s Stapleton and Central Platte Valley neighborhoods are strong candidates, as is the Denver Federal Center in Lakewood, Franklin said.
Key draws for the winning site will be its location relative to Denver International Airport and access to a light rail stop because the office is expected to frequently attract out-of-state patent filers.
“Whether it’s Lone Tree or Stapleton or Lakewood or somewhere else in the metro area, the light rail station is going to put any one of those sites in a much better position to attract a USPTO office,” said Bryan Blakely, president of Accelerate Colorado, the primary financial backer of Colorado’s patent office proposal.
In addition to sites in downtown Denver and Aurora, the Colorado proposal also identified properties in Greenwood Village, Centennial and Lone Tree for federal officials to consider.
The Detroit satellite office will open with 125 employees – including 25 patent examiners and seven administrative law judges to help deal with the backlog of appeals.
Federal officials hope to “exploit” the various regions’ “hubs of creativity” eventually with offices specializing in local industries. So, for example, Denver could specialize in aerospace and telecommunications.
Andy Vuong : 303-954-1209 or facebook.com/byandyvuong
