Patent Office Professional Association

What Patent Office Professional Association does

The Patent Office Professional Association (POPA) is the statutorily recognized exclusive federal labor union representing more than 8,500 patent examiners and other patent professionals at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Founded in 1965 and headquartered at the USPTO Alexandria campus (Randolph Building, office 1D61), POPA provides collective bargaining representation, grievance and arbitration handling, legal defense in adverse actions, and workplace advocacy on issues ranging from performance appraisals and telework policies to benefits, leave programs, and pay. Its core service surface consists of direct representation (office hours, hotline, email support), negotiation of collective bargaining agreements (most recently the 2024-2029 CBA), grievance filings and unfair labor practice charges, and informational resources for examiners covering work-life balance, performance management, and regional office policies.

POPA's business model is member-funded through annual dues of $130 per member, yielding approximately $345,155 in dues income in 2017 against a budgeted $345,200, supplemented by minor interest income ($9,146). Total 2017 income was $354,301 against expenditures of $125,369, generating $228,932 added to reserves. The organization operates with no external investment, no commercial revenue, and no scalable monetization — it is structurally a closed-system nonprofit professional association. POPA's go-to-market is community-led: membership is driven by USPTO employment eligibility, on-campus events at Alexandria and four regional offices (Detroit, Denver, San Jose, Dallas), the popa.org website, and word-of-mouth within the patent examiner workforce. There is no technology product, no AI capability, and no platform architecture beyond standard union communication infrastructure.

Name

Patent Office Professional Association

Legal name

Patent Office Professional Association

Website

https://popa.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1965

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

POPA is the exclusive federal labor union representing 8,500+ patent examiners and other patent professionals at the USPTO, providing collective bargaining, grievance representation, and workplace advocacy since 1965.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Labor Union Services

SIC

Services-Legal Services (8111)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYBPAHAAAD

Employment & Labor Law

Business & Public Services/Professional Services (Legal, Accounting, Consulting)/Legal Services

Keywords

• Federal labor union
• Collective bargaining
• Patent examiner representation
• Workplace advocacy
• Grievance representation

Headquarters

HQ city

Port Moresby

HQ country

Papua New Guinea

HQ region

Oceania

Offices5 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Membership Dues: POPA operates as a federal labor union funded by membership dues. Annual per-member dues of $130. Budget documents show dues income of $331,500 in 2015 and $345,155 in 2017 from approximately 2,550-2,655 dues-paying members.
2. Interest Income: Minor interest income on union reserves. 2017: $9,146 interest income against budget of $7,200.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Patent Office Professional Association (POPA) is a federal labor union founded in 1965 that represents more than 8,500 patent examiners and other patent professionals at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). It provides collective bargaining representation, grievance handling, legal defense in adverse actions, workplace advocacy, and member support programs covering telework, leave policies, compensation, and work-life balance. POPA negotiates Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs) with USPTO management and supports members across USPTO offices in Alexandria, Detroit, Denver, San Jose, and Dallas.

Product overview

The Patent Office Professional Association (POPA) is a federal labor union representing patent examiners and other patent professionals at the USPTO. As a labor union organization rather than a technology company, POPA does not offer software products or technology platforms. Its services include collective bargaining representation, grievance handling, workplace advocacy, and member support programs covering work-life balance issues such as telework, maternity/paternity leave, part-time programs, and retirement planning. POPA publishes various help guides, negotiates CBAs (Collective Bargaining Agreements), and provides resources on topics including patent quality initiatives, performance management, and employee benefits.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Collective Bargaining Representation Negotiation of Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs) with USPTO management on behalf of patent examiners and patent professionals, covering compensation, telework, performance appraisal, leave policies, and workplace conditions.
• Grievance and Arbitration Representation Formal representation for members in filing and processing grievances, including unfair labor practice (ULP) filings, against USPTO management over workplace issues, adverse actions, and policy disputes.
• Legal Defense Fund Legal defense services for members facing proposed removal, proposed adverse actions, or investigatory meetings at USPTO, including attorney representation and a POPA Hotline providing 24-hour weekday callbacks.
• Annual POPA Membership Annual membership in POPA at $130 per year per member, granting access to representation, advocacy, grievance handling, legal defense, and member communications.

Quantifiable outcome

• Negotiated count system initiatives that reallocated count credit to examiners
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Federal-Postal CoalitioncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCoalition of over 20 Federal employee and Postal unions, Federal manager associations, and National Association of Active and Retired Federal Employees. POPA participates in monthly meetings, Congressional meetings, signs onto letters to Congress, and uses the coalition as an information-sharing source. Coalition opposes federal employee benefit cuts and retirement reductions.
• Federal Workers AlliancecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCoalition of most Federal employee unions. POPA attends monthly meetings, participates in Congressional meetings, signs onto letters, and uses the group as an information source. The Alliance opposed the nomination of a Director for OPM.
• Partnership for Public ServiceminorOthersNonprofit, nonpartisan organization that developed the Public Service Viewpoint Survey (PFPS) as an alternative to the cancelled Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. Survey designed to capture federal employee experiences and ensure their voices are heard.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• National Association of Government Employees (NAGE): NAGE represents federal, state, and local government employees. Comparable to POPA in mission (collective bargaining for public-sector workers), revenue model (dues-funded), and operating posture (small-team staff, multi-channel member engagement), though larger in scale.
• American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE): AFGE is the largest federal employee union, representing over 700,000 workers. POPA is co-plaintiff with AFGE in the federal unions' lawsuit against Trump executive orders on collective bargaining, demonstrating shared legal exposure, similar advocacy missions, and overlapping coalition memberships.
• National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA): NATCA represents federal air traffic controllers — a single-agency federal union structurally analogous to POPA's single-agency (USPTO) focus. Both unions rely on dues from a specialized federal workforce, hold statutory bargaining rights, and engage in high-stakes federal labor advocacy.
• National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE): NFFE is an AFL-CIO affiliate federal union representing workers across multiple federal agencies. It shares POPA's structural model: exclusive bargaining representative status, dues-based funding, grievance/arbitration services, and active participation in coalitions like the Federal Workers Alliance that POPA also belongs to.
• International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE): IFPTE represents professional and technical federal employees, including at USPTO-adjacent science and engineering agencies. It mirrors POPA's professional/skilled-employee focus, exclusive bargaining status, and reliance on dues from technically-skilled federal workers.
• National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU): NTEU is a federal labor union representing IRS employees and other federal workers. Like POPA, NTEU holds statutory exclusive bargaining representative status for its units, engages in collective bargaining with federal agencies, files grievances and ULPs, and is a member of the same Federal-Postal Coalition referenced in POPA's data.

Others

• Federal Workers Alliance: Coalition in which POPA is an active participant alongside most other federal employee unions. Functions as an industry-level advocacy body for federal labor, of which POPA is a member rather than competitor.
• Partnership for Public Service: Nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that partnered with POPA on the PFPS Survey alternative to the cancelled Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. Operates in the federal employee engagement ecosystem that POPA serves, though not a competing representative.

Emerging players

• Federal Managers Association (FMA): FMA represents federal managers and supervisors — the counterpart to labor unions in federal labor relations. POPA engages with FMA members in Joint Labor Management Committee negotiations, making FMA a structurally comparable organization on the management side of the same bargaining process POPA operates in.
• Fraternal Order of Police (FOP): While focused on law enforcement, FOP's federal labor lodge represents federal officers and shares POPA's statutory bargaining representative model, dues-based funding, and coalition participation in federal employee advocacy groups. Useful benchmark for federal union operating models.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/png-palm-oil-producers-association

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Patent Office Professional Association