USPTO’s latest innovation ecosystem partnership to serve North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park and surrounding region

America’s Innovation Agency, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), today announced the selection of a new community engagement office in Raleigh on NC State’s Centennial Campus to further the agency’s outreach efforts in the Southeast Region.

The new location will be housed at North Carolina State University, a Tier 1 (R1) research university strategically located in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park and adjacent to R1 universities Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“The USPTO’s decision to establish a presence in Raleigh is a strong endorsement of the Research Triangle as one of the nation’s leading centers of innovation,” said Michael Haley, Executive Director of Wake County Economic Development, a program of the Greater Raleigh Chamber.  “By bringing intellectual property resources closer to our entrepreneurs, researchers, and corporations, this new office will help accelerate the path from discovery to commercialization and further strengthen our region’s competitive advantage.”

The USPTO’s innovation ecosystem partnership with NC State will help the agency to serve the intellectual property (IP) protection needs of the area’s local inventors, entrepreneurs, small businesses, and other stakeholders.

“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.”

The USPTO’s community engagement office at NC State will serve as an IP hub for the broader innovation ecosystem in Research Triangle Park, including the area’s 12 colleges and universities. Duke, UNC, and NC State together accounted for $3.9 billion in annual research and development expenditures in 2024, according to the National Science Foundation. These expenditures contributed significantly to North Carolina’s patent filings, which experienced a marked 35% increase in the number of patents filed by residents in the five-year period between 2019 and 2024.

In February 2026, the USPTO issued a request for comments seeking public input regarding the locations for one or more community outreach offices (now referred to as community engagement offices) in the Southeast Region. This region includes Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas.

“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. Stay tuned!”

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. Community engagement offices 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 NC State Community Engagement Office will assist 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 from Research Triangle Park’s nearby national sports teams and influencers.

With the addition of the NC State Community Engagement Office, the USPTO will operate a network of six community engagement offices, with partnerships at universities in Alabama, Georgia, Montana, New Hampshire, and Utah. The USPTO’s community engagement offices 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 organizations on outreach and educational programming.

Visit the USPTO website to learn more about regional outreach and community engagement offices across the nation.