Workflow and production: daily life at the USPTO

06 February 2012

Emma Barraclough, London

James Kramer is a patent examiner at the USPTO in a team that deals with applications related to finance: from trading and portfolio management to banking. He tells Emma Barraclough about working life in Alexandria, Virginia

The Patent Office is located in DC’s northern Virginia area. The beltway – a big highway – encircles the metro DC area which is dense and there’s a lot of traffic. The office is metro-accessible and there’s a train line nearby, but I drive in. To avoid the traffic I leave home around 5.30 am, which means my journey takes about 30 minutes.

There are a few flexible working schemes in the office and I use the “max flex” programme which means I need to work 80 hours each fortnight and requires me to be in the office during certain core hours. I also have to make sure I am available for meetings with attorneys – who might be from the east or west coast. I generally leave about 4.30 or 5 in the afternoon and I work from home on Fridays. I treat that as my...

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