 The United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO or USPTO)
is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that issues patents to inventors and businesses for their inventions, and trademark registration for product and intellectual property identification.
USPTO.GOV is the official website for the US Patent and Trademark Office.
USPTO.ORG and USPTO.COM are parked advertising sites.
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| USPTO.gov is currently based in Alexandria, Virginia, after a 2006 move from the Crystal City area of Arlington, Virginia. A few offices remain in the Potomac Gateway complex at the southern end of Crystal City; these offices will move to Randolph Sqaure, a brand new building in Shirlington Village, in 2009.
Since 1991, the office has been fully funded by fees charged for processing patents and trademarks. The current head of the USPTO is Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property Jon W. Dudas, who was nominated to the position by President George W. Bush in March 2004 and was then appointed on July 30, 2004.
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PTO headquarters in AlexandriaThe USPTO.gov cooperates with the European Patent Office (EPO) and the Japan Patent Office (JPO) as one of the Trilateral Patent Offices. The USPTO is also a Receiving Office, an International Searching Authority and an International Preliminary Examination Authority for international patent applications filed in accordance with the Patent Cooperation Treaty.
The mission of the USPTO is to promote "industrial and technological progress in the United States and strengthen the national economy" by:
 administering the laws relating to patents and trademarks
advising the Secretary of Commerce, the President of the United States, and the administration on patent, trademark, and copyright protection
providing advice on the trade-related aspects of intellectual property.
Each year, the PTO issues over 150,000 patents to companies and individuals worldwide. As of February 2008, the PTO has granted over 7,950,000 patents.
The USPTO will accept patent applications filed in electronic form. As of March 2006, inventors or their patent agents/attorneys can file applications as Adobe PDF documents. The web page for submitting applications is https://sportal.uspto.gov/secure/portal/efs-unregistered. Filing fees can be paid by credit card or by a USPTO ”deposit account“.
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US Patent and Trademark Office | USPTO.GOV | USPTO.COM | USPTO.ORG | wwwuspto | Patents | PTO.GOV
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