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 services—applications for patents and trademark registrations—and charges fees projected to cover the cost of performing the services [it] provide[s]".