21. Department of Commerce · Major · Needs Congress
Merge USPTO and NIST into a U.S. Office of Patents, Trademarks, and Standards
Printed page 664 21. Department of Commerce
“Alternatively, the USPTO should be consolidated with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in a new U.S. Office of Patents, Trademarks, and Standards, with all non-mission-critical research functions eliminated or moved to other, more focused, federal agencies”
What has happened
- Not started
No such office exists or has been proposed. The Patent and Trademark Office and the National Institute of Standards and Technology are still separate Commerce bureaus, each with its own appropriation in P.L. 119-74 (2026-01-23). The FY2027 Budget proposes cutting NIST by $993 million but keeps it as NIST; nothing consolidates the two.
No action found yet. This entry is the starting point, not a finding.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- Negative searches (exact strings in
docs/research/ch-21.md): a Federal Register full-text search since 2025-01-20 for “Office of Patents, Trademarks, and Standards” returns nothing; a search for “Department Organization Order” returns nothing; the 119th-Congress bills Corpus has no bill whose title names both the Patent and Trademark Office and the Institute of Standards and Technology; neitherfr-presdocunorpresidential-actionscontains a reorganization document for Commerce. - Primary sources loaded this session showing both bureaus intact:
- P.L. 119-74, Department of Commerce Appropriations Act, 2026 (separate “United States Patent and Trademark Office” and NIST headings) — https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-119publ74/html/PLAW-119publ74.htm
- FY2027 Budget, “National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) (–$993 million)” — https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/budget_fy2027.pdf
- The Mandate offers this as the alternative to its preferred option (moving USPTO out of Commerce); that primary option is a separate Recommendation and is not tracked here.
- Action
- create
- Object
- U.S. Office of Patents, Trademarks, and Standards
- ID
- 1814