In a message to USPTO employees on April 21, USPTO director David Kappos announced that congressional budget cuts will require the agency to reduce or postpone several recently-announced programs. Reductions that are most likely to affect USPTO users are:
- the Track One expedited examination program, which was scheduled to take effect May 4, 2011, is indefinitely postponed;
- plans for a Detroit satellite office are tabled, along with considerations of any other satellite offices; and
- new examiner hiring is frozen and examiner overtime is suspended until further notice.
The cutbacks are likely to impair the USPTO’s efforts to reduce the time that it takes for a patent application to grant. More details will be added as they become available.
IP Spotlight 
My son who is a Chemical Engineer and an Attorney with Patent License to practice was very much interested in working at the Detroit office. All the hype about hiring several hundred of attorneys and examiners is now like a “pie in the sky”.
This clearly tells everyone that “poitical talk” is nothing but a fairly tale in the making. As a parent I am equally disappointed.