Patent Office Exempts Examiners From Buyouts, Early Retirement

Patent and trademark examiners aren’t eligible for buyouts the US Patent and Trademark Office offered all other employees Tuesday, according to emails obtained by Bloomberg Law.

An email from PTO acting chief administrative officer Anne Mendez followed one sent to all US Commerce Department personnel earlier on Tuesday explaining eligibility for Voluntary Early Retirement Authority and Voluntary Separation Incentive Payments, which it said gives payments of as much as $25,000 to employees exiting voluntarily before a reduction in force.

“Both programs are open to all employees except patent examiners, trademark examining attorneys, supervisory patent examiners, and supervisory trademark examining attorneys,” Mendez wrote.

The agency’s buyout and early retirement offers are part of the Trump administration’s broader push to whittle the size of the federal government. Facing pushback from judges against widespread firings and limited uptake of a deferred resignation proposal, executive agencies have turned to using incentives to convince staff to leave and are developing plans for widespread layoffs.

The Securities and Exchange Commission last week extended a juiced-up buyout deal, offering workers $50,000 to resign or retire by April 4, significantly beyond the government-wide cap. The Department of Health and Human Services beefed up its $25,000 deal with around two months of paid administrative leave if employees accept the buyout. Similar to the PTO excluding examiners, the US Food and Drug Administration last week announced that employees responsible for reviewing drugs, medical devices, and tobacco products ineligible to accept buyouts.

The deadline to accept the offer is April 17, the PTO and Commerce emails said.