USPTO plans new North Carolina office at NC State
Inventors in North Carolina’s Research Triangle region and beyond will soon have access to a new local office of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
The federal agency announced it will establish a community engagement office at North Carolina State University in Raleigh to serve the intellectual property (IP) protection needs of inventors, entrepreneurs, small businesses and other stakeholders in the Triangle area and elsewhere in North Carolina.
The North Carolina office will join five other community engagement offices in Montana, Utah, Georgia, Alabama and New Hampshire as part of the USPTO’s effort to “meet innovators where they are” and drive technology commercialization, manufacturing and marketplace adoption. 
“Today’s announcement strengthens our engagement infrastructure, which includes our five regional outreach offices, now six community engagement offices, and 102 Patent and Trademark Resource Center-designated libraries,” said John A. Squires, under secretary of commerce for intellectual property and director of the USPTO. “This places USPTO-enabled engagement nodes into the heart of startup, university, incubator, manufacturing, advance technology, and innovation-ecosystem communities ─ and we’re still in the early innings of our infrastructure build.”
The North Carolina office, to be located on NC State’s Centennial Campus, will serve as an IP hub for the Research Triangle region, including the area’s 12 colleges and universities.
Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and NC State together accounted for $3.9 billion in annual research and development expenditures in 2024, according to the National Science Foundation. These investments contributed significantly to North Carolina’s patent filings, which grew by 35% between 2019 and 2024, according to the USPTO.
"NC State has a long history of fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, and we are proud to welcome the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to Centennial Campus,” said NC State Chancellor Kevin Howell. “The new community engagement office will expand opportunities for inventors, researchers, students, and industry partners to collaborate and bring new discoveries to market, helping solve real-world challenges.”
Helping inventors innovate
USPTO’s community engagement offices provide convenient access to IP education and outreach for individual inventors, small businesses, veterans, low-income populations, students, and rural populations to engage stakeholders earlier in the application process. They also carry out the strategic direction of the USPTO’s Office of Public Engagement and ensure the USPTO’s initiatives and programs are tailored to each area’s unique ecosystem of industries and stakeholders.
In addition to patent filing assistance, the North Carolina engagement office will help entrepreneurs and small businesses with information about federal trademark registration. Assistance also extends to name, image, and likeness protections for those seeking to monetize their personal branding, particularly student-athletes at the area’s three NCAA Division 1 universities, as well as professional athletes in the region.
“North Carolina’s selection for a new USPTO community engagement office affirms that our state and the Research Triangle region in particular have robust innovation and R&D ecosystem,” said Mike Carnes, vice president of emerging company development at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. “This office will provide inventors with increases access to support, including IP education, patent applications and related work essential to bringing new life sciences technologies to market. It’s a welcomed asset for our innovation ecosystem.”
The USPTO’s community engagement offices will work closely with IP practitioners and services, startups, and job-growth accelerators, leveraging existing partnership infrastructures rather than building costly new facilities from scratch. They will also collaborate with local STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) organizations on outreach and educational programming.
In addition to its new USPTO community engagement office, North Carolina has two libraries designated as Patent and Trademark Resource Centers: one in Raleigh and one in Charlotte. Though not part of the USPTO, the libraries provide free public access to products and services, patent and trademark training, and reference assistance and outreach.