Office of the Chief Information Officer
The Chief Information Officer (CIO) is the principal advisor to the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office on application of information technology (IT) to support and improve the USPTO’s business processes. As an advisor, the CIO:
- develops strategic and operational information technology plans and operating budgets;
- develops and maintains the United States Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO) automated information systems;
- operates the USPTO's computer facilities, equipment, and telecommunications network;
- develops, maintains and disseminates patent and trademark information to the public;
- serves as the USPTO's Senior Information Resources Management (IRM) Official;
- provides technical direction for the re-engineering of USPTO's business process; and
- provides administrative policy direction to the organizational elements reporting to the CIO.
The Office of the CIO Consists of the following offices:
Deputy Chief Information Officer
The Deputy CIO provides administrative and policy oversight to all OCIO offices with particular emphasis on day-to-day IT operations execution. The Deputy CIO leads major initiatives that span across Offices and serves as the Executive Sponsor for cross-organizational groups including the Capital Planning Investment Control Review Board (CRB), the Performance Review Board (PRB), and the Architecture Review Board (ARB). The Deputy CIO provides administrative and policy oversight to and coordinates the activities of the following Offices:
Office of Organizational Policy and Governance
The Office of Organizational Policy and Governance (OPG) provides the management and oversight of enterprise Information Technology (IT) strategies, guidance, policies, and agency-wide cybersecurity . The Office implements and assesses the organization’s compliance with enterprise IT processes and standards. The Office serves as the primary coordinator for the OCIO strategic planning efforts to maximize process efficiency and cost-effectiveness through the development and deployment of quality products and services to OCIO customers, in accordance with USPTO strategic objectives. The Office is responsible for the institutionalization and governance of quality practices throughout OCIO through planning, quality assurance, education and training, and formal technical reviews The Office performs reviews of OCIO processes and methods, and coordinates all review activity, translating findings and recommendations into action plans to improve quality. The executive of OPG serves as the focal point for IT security and ensures USPTO adherence to United States laws and polices The office consists of four divisions: Policy and Standards, Strategic and Investment Planning, Process Improvement, and Cybersecurity.
Other related topics:
The Office of Program Administration Organization
The Office of Program Administration Organization (PAO) is responsible for the management of the overall USPTO IT program. The Office provides the major points of contact for OCIO customers, specifically Patent, Trademark, Corporate, Policy and International accounts. The Office maintains a working knowledge of clients’ missions and business functions, and manages interactions with customers to ensure that requirements are met. The Office is responsible for registering work requests, project planning and monitoring, updating the project repository and tracking issues and risks, and recommending or directly applying corrective actions when necessary to enforce OCIO processes and standards, address status issues, and respond to customer concerns. The Office communicates with customers throughout the project life cycle and is responsible for ensuring customer satisfaction with both the process and the end product.
The Office is also responsible for ensuring that appropriate budgetary, contractual, and human capital resources are in place to support the planned OCIO investments. The Office will develop, maintain, and oversee the OCIO budgets and ensure compliance with guiding fiscal regulations, policies, and procedures. The Office manages the acquisition life cycle for IT and services, and drives workforce strategy, planning, development, and support programs for internal OCIO resources. The office consists of four divisions: Program Management, Financial Resources Management, Acquisitions Management, and Workforce Management.
Office of Application Engineering and Development
The Office of Application Engineering and Development (AED) is responsible for the full life cycle management of the USPTO’s automated information systems, consistent with the USPTO’s strategic IT plans and supporting technical architecture. The Office designs, develops the systems and validates that the business areas’ functional and performance requirements are met prior to delivery to Operations for production testing and deployment.
AED consists of five divisions: Software Architecture and Engineering, Patent Systems, Trademark Systems, Corporate Systems, and Functional Testing.
Office of Infrastructure Engineering and Operations
The Director of Infrastructure Engineering and Operations serves as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO). The CTO is the senior-level advisor responsible for evaluating emerging technologies, communicating them throughout the OCIO, and advising the CIO and DCIO on technologies that show promise and should be funded and further developed. The CTO also provides input into the OCIO long-range strategic IT planning process and provides advice and recommendations surrounding the enterprise-wide technical architecture.
The Office of Infrastructure Engineering and Operations (IEO) provides day-to-day operational support for the USPTO automated information systems. The Office maintains the USPTO data center facilities, production hardware, and telecommunications infrastructure. The Office leads the definition and evolution of the architecture for the USPTO-wide IT infrastructure, ensuring the proper development of that infrastructure, enforcing controls for new systems and applications, implementing necessary upgrades, and integrating applicable new technology. Principal focus areas include controlling the migration to an established system architecture, developing common infrastructure components, establishing and enforcing adequate security measures, upgrading the performance and reliability of infrastructure components, selecting IT and electronic commerce standards, leveraging Internet technologies to support USPTO business functions, establishing remote access capabilities, providing pre-production acceptance testing, and performing capacity planning and performance management of the USPTO’s computer resources. Additionally, the office has primary responsibility for the Federal Enterprise Architecture activities for the Agency and in that role serves as the documenting and governing body for all Architectural activities accomplished throughout the OCIO.
The Office consists of six divisions: Enterprise Architecture, Infrastructure Systems Engineering, Infrastructure Services, Technical Services, Network Technologies, and Production Verification Testing.
Office of Information Management Services
The Office of Information Management Services (IMS) delivers quality information products and services to meet USPTO, public, and intellectual property community needs and ensures the quality and integrity of the intellectual property data. The Office provides access to collections of patents, trademarks, and related information through multiple nodes, and promotes dissemination of information to the public on the use of patent and trademark information systems. The office provides support across the USPTO with software, hardware, network, desktop, and web services that support access to the USPTO’s IT assets. The Office monitors the electronic access and dissemination of the USPTO’s products and services and proactively responds to impending or existing disruptions in services through communication, coordination, and escalation as needed until the problem is resolved. The Office maintains the content and context configuration item data of the Agency’s information technology infrastructure assets and services.
IMS consists of the Public Information Services Group and four divisions: Customer Support and Monitoring, Collaborative Services, Enterprise Configuration Management, and Data Management.
