Remote Work on the Chopping Block: How Union Exclusion Reshapes USPTO Employment

by Dennis Crouch

In a significant labor relations development that will reshape working conditions for thousands of patent examiners, President Trump issued an executive order on August 28, 2025, excluding the USPTO’s entire Patents business unit from federal collective bargaining protections.  The order, titled “Further Exclusions from the Federal Labor-Management Relations Program,” adds “Office of the Commissioner for Patents and subordinate units, Patent and Trademark Office” to the list of agencies excluded from Chapter 71 of Title 5, United States Code (the federal labor-management relations statute). This exclusion effectively terminates union representation for patent examiners by the Patent Office Professional Association (POPA), which has represented USPTO examiners for years based upon negotiated collective bargaining agreements that govern everything from telework arrangements to performance evaluation procedures.

The executive order relies on the President’s authority under 5 U.S.C. § 7103(b)(1), which permits excluding agencies or subdivisions when the President determines they have “as a primary function intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work” and that Chapter 71 “cannot be applied to that agency or subdivision in a manner consistent with national security requirements and considerations.” According to Acting USPTO Director Coke Morgan Stewart’s internal message to staff, “the administration has determined that the Patents business unit and the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) business unit have ‘as a primary function . . . national security work,'” rendering federal labor protections inconsistent with national security considerations. The changes took effect immediately and remove POPA’s bargaining rights for patent examiners.

I want to pause in the analysis to acknowledge that thousands of patent examiners now face significant uncertainty about their working conditions and job security, including big questions about whether they will need to uproot their family in order to keep a job.