Request for Comments on Community Outreach Office Locations in the Southwest States

Inventors in six states may soon have a patent office closer to home. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office asked the public where to put one or more new community outreach offices in its Southwest Region: Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri.

These outreach offices are separate from the USPTO’s four regional offices in Detroit, San Jose, Dallas and Alexandria, Virginia. A 2022 law, the Unleashing American Innovators Act, requires at least four of them by December 29, 2027. Their job is to teach would-be inventors, small businesses, veterans, students and rural residents about patents and the public and private help available, including patent pro bono programs.

The roll-out so far: Durham, New Hampshire (Northern New England) opened in January 2025. Salt Lake City (Mountain West) and Bozeman, Montana (Northwest Frontier) followed in February 2026. In July 2026 the agency announced Atlanta and Huntsville, Alabama, for the Southeast.

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To choose Southwest sites, the USPTO says it will weigh research activity and graduate programs, local business-development resources, and the ability to serve all kinds of inventors. It also asked whether services should be in person or online, and whether offices should share space with universities.

The comment window closed September 16, 2026, under Docket No. PTO-C-2026-0562. Questions go to Chris Shipp, Chief of Staff, at 571-272-8600.

Federal Register filing: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/08/17/2026-16744/request-for-comments-on-community-outreach-office-locations-in-the-southwest-states

This is a Notice Nearby publisher-desk Federal brief — a short in-house summary of a public federal filing. It is not official agency minutes, not a newspaper story, and not Legal Publication. It does not satisfy a statutory notice requirement.