Will The New Administration And Doge Shakeups Adversely Affect The USPTO?

The United States Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, occupies a unique role within the federal government because it is entirely fee-funded and, along with the Internal Revenue Service, is one of the few cashflow positive agencies.¹ Additionally, unlike many agencies that only began to permit remote work in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the USPTO adopted telework and remote work in the early 2000s and approximately 96% of the agency works remotely.²

Perhaps because its fee-funded status makes it a less attractive target for cost cutting, the USPTO has not been directly targeted by DOGE³ and the Trump Administration's cost-cutting measures, but instead has been affected by their more general efforts to change the federal government. For example, in response to an executive order mandating termination of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs,⁴ the USPTO shuttered initiatives that sought to expand access to innovation and diversify the makeup of the