[Patentpractice] Denver patent office closing? (was Re: Patent Center change)

[Margaret Polson]

What Molly posted on LinkedIn

[cid:image001.png at 01DC32DA.2295E360]

From: Patentpractice <patentpractice-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> On Behalf Of David Hricik via Patentpractice
Sent: Wednesday, October 1, 2025 3:47 AM
To: For patent practitioners. This is not for laypersons to seek legal advice. <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>
Cc: David Hricik <david at hricik.com>
Subject: Re: [Patentpractice] Denver patent office closing? (was Re: Patent Center change)

No, the office. Damn.

David Hricik





On Oct 1, 2025, at 5:32 AM, david--- via Patentpractice <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>> wrote:

It’s the outreach that is closing.

https://www.uspto.gov/about-us/news-updates/uspto-announces-closure-rocky-mountain-regional-outreach-office

David Hricik
151 Country Creek Rd.
Macon, GA 31220



On Oct 1, 2025, at 3:57 AM, Dan Feigelson via Patentpractice <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>> wrote:

Seems to me the implementation of the satellite offices was not done intelligently.

For starters, while I'm in favor of the PTO having physical offices with all members of a GAU in the same office (see below), if you're going to allow people to work from home, as the PTO does, then there's little sense in having physical offices.

Second, if you're going to have physical offices, then the entire art unit should be in the same physical office. It's better for training, it's better for institutional memory and continuity, it's better for applicants.

Third, an impetus, perhaps the principal impetus, for setting up satellite offices was that the cost of living in DC/NoVA was high.  So in that regard, a Detroit office sort of made sense, although locating it in downtown Detroit probably made less sense. But even if they'd put it in the suburbs, public transportation in southeast Michigan is poor, so Michigan might not have been the best choice.  But San Jose as a cheaper alternative to DC? Maybe SJ is better than San Francisco, but I'm certain there are less expensive areas that could have served the purpose. If all the people working in GAUs related to Silicon Valley technologies were located in the San Jose office, using the SJ location might have made sense. But that's not the way it was done, so why put it specifically in SJ in the first place?

Anyway, sounds like the Denver "office" was never really an office.

Dan

On Wed, Oct 1, 2025 at 7:54 AM Carl Oppedahl via Patentpractice <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>> wrote:
On 9/29/2025 4:15 PM, David Hricik via Patentpractice wrote:

I also heard a rumor (maybe it is old news) that the Denver regional office employees were not part of a back-to-the-office order, and rumor is it is shutting down?

Well, folks, you heard it here from David first.

Yes, the USPTO just now announced that it is going to shut down the Denver patent office.

I guess one might have seen this coming, when the Director of the Denver patent office, Molly Kocialski announced (three weeks ago) that she was done at the Denver patent office and had joined the well known Denver law firm Holland and Hart.

The USPTO's announcement says:

As of December of 2024, the number of employees in the Rocky Mountain office had dropped to less than 10.

Of course the correct way to say it would have been "fewer than 10".

But anyway, yes it seems the Denver patent office will close.





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