Senator Wolk leads effort to locate new US Patent Office in Sacramento

Office would spur innovation, create jobs, help revitalize local economy

SACRAMENTO—Led by Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) and Senate President Pro tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), a bipartisan group of legislators from the greater Sacramento Valley region are proposing to establish a new outpost of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that would match the area’s favorable business climate and skilled workforce with the opportunity to help revitalize the struggling local economy and create much-needed jobs.

Fifteen state legislators, seven Democrats and eight Republicans, sent a letter today in response to a federal request for suggestions for potential locations for new satellite offices of the USPTO. The office intends to establish at least two satellite offices over the next three years, in addition to one already planned for Detroit, Michigan. The Detroit office is anticipated to create more than 100 high-paying, high-skill jobs in its first year of operation.

“The Sacramento region is a hub of innovation, and produces the nation's top-ranked engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and lawyers from both our public and private universities,” said Wolk, who authored and circulated the letter. “Our top notch universities continue to produce a highly-trained workforce, skilled in innovation and the ability to connect scientific and technological developments with those who can ultimately make these advancements available to the public.  I’m pleased that we have put together a strong and united bipartisan pitch for our region.”  Wolk represents the University of California Davis campus, the region’s center of patent producing research and development.

In the letter, the legislators note that despite the area’s strong business community, government assets and higher educational opportunities, the Sacramento region has an unemployment rate of 13 percent—higher than the national average—and that the economic forecast anticipates that rate to increase through 2012. Comparably, the unemployment rates of the Bay Area and San Francisco, other proposed locations for satellite offices, are estimated at 7 to 8 percent.

“A new patent office would boost our economy, help support local businesses, and encourage new residents to enjoy our substantially low cost of living compared to the high-cost of living in the surrounding Bay Area,” the letter reads. “We believe a regional patent office could leverage the extremely high level of patent activity generated on the West Coast, and in California in particular, and at the same time benefit from Sacramento's affordable cost of living, high quality of life, and stable work force.”

Last week, the State Assembly and Senate sent the USPTO a resolution, AJR 23, urging that a satellite office be located in California. 

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