Worlds Inc (WDDD)

[DDobserver]

USPTO

https://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2019/01/agencies-are-shutting-down-more-activities-furloughing-more-workers-funds-run-dry/154375/

The Patent and Trademark Office is currently open and functioning normally. The agency has warned employees that could soon change, however, as prior-year, fee-collected funds run dry.

“The USPTO anticipates that it will have sufficient funds from other than current-year appropriations to continue full operations for a brief period after a general lapse in appropriations commences,” the Commerce Department wrote in its shutdown plan. “Therefore, all employees of the USPTO will be excepted for such period following a lapse in appropriations.”

Once that period ends, USPTO will furlough more than 12,000 employees, leaving less than 1 percent of its workforce on the job.

“Should the USPTO exhaust these funds before a partial government shutdown comes to an end, the agency would have to shut down at that time, although a small staff would continue to work to receive new applications” and various other functions, said Paul Fucito, an agency spokesman. He said USPTO has not yet calculated a “hard and fast date” for when the shutdown would commence, but it has recently updated employees to warn them about a looming closure.