The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently announced that it intends to place six administrative patent judges with the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, at its Detroit, Michigan branch.  This will be in addition to hiring many new patent examiners for the new USPTO location.

The September 16, 2011, Leahy-Smith America Invents Act requires the USPTO to open the Detroit branch, which the USPTO intends to do in June of 2012.  This branch office will better assist the many inventive entities located in the state of Michigan, including General Motors, Chrysler, Denso, Tenneco, the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and the many other larger and smaller clients of Harness IP.

Harness IP is one of the very few intellectual property firms in the world with substantial offices near both of the USPTO offices, in metropolitan Washington, DC and metropolitan Detroit.  Harness IP also has offices in metropolitan St. Louis¸ Missouri, and Portland, Oregon.  Harness IP was founded in 1921 and has more than 110 patent and trademark attorneys.  Harness IP is among the top five firms in U.S. patent issuances and among the top twenty-five in U.S. trademark registrations.