    the united states patent and trademark office (pto or uspto) is an agency in the u.s. department of commerce that issues patents to inventors and businesses for their inventions, and trademark registration for product and intellectual property identification. the uspto is "unique among federal agencies because it operates solely on fees collected by its users, and not on taxpayer dollars". its "operating structure is like a business in that it receives requests for servicesâapplications for patents and trademark registrationsâand charges fees projected to cover the cost of performing the services [it] provide[s]".{{cite news | last = bohle | first = shannon | title = a four part series on open notebook science (part 4) |url=http://www.scilogs.com/scientific_and_medical_libraries/a-four-part-series-on-open-notebook-science-part-4/ | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140219191548/http://www.scilogs.com/scientific_and_medical_libraries/a-four-part-series-on-open-notebook-science-part-4/ | archived
Agencies_of_the_United_States_government Intellectual_property_organizations International_Searching_and_Preliminary_Examining_Authorities Patent_offices United_States_Department_of_Commerce_agencies United_States_Patent_and_Trademark_Office United_States_patent_law United_States_trademark_law