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Holcombe changed the way USPTO viewed IT

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8 months ago

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When Jamie Holcombe arrived at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2019, he had a simple goal: Focus the technology on the mission and get out of day-to-day.

Holcombe, who recently left after spending almost seven years as the USPTO’s chief information officer, drove technology changes to modernize the patent and trademark systems.

Holcombe said the technology of the Patent and Trademark Office is more mission driven than ever before.

Jamie Holcombe was the CIO for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for almost seven years.

“Why were we involved in networking or data centers or really anything? We should not be because that does not have any core differentiation to our business model. So if we can outsource that and then use the most advanced tools every three to five years, replacing those tools with new tools, our examiners will have a much better chance at keeping up with the backlog,” Holcombe said on Ask the CIO. “Our biggest issue was we receive 600,000 patent applications every year. We were developing a backlog such that the examiners are inundated with all of this information and data. They have an obligation to sort through it and filter through it. So we needed to give them the tools and the ability, the capabilities, the potential, to overcome that backlog and keep up with the current application process. That’s what we set out to do.”

USPTO changed its approach to technology modernization over the last six years to focus on mission first and only while also securing its data.

Holcombe, who joined USAI as a vice president in August, said he spent the first several years at the agency just getting out of managing the infrastructure, which was mostly on-premise data centers, relying on mainframes and legacy relational databases.

“Every time we made a change in the relational database, we had to make sure that the system of record on the mainframe was updated. That really weighs you down. It’s like an anchor around your neck, having to duplicate all actions in two different places. That is insanity when you’re trying to move fast,” he said. “So eliminating that mainframe was a fantastic thing. We were so proud to get it done. We also have gotten rid of all of our old IBM WebSphere, as well as a lot of the other batch processing that was done at night. That was 25 years of old systems that were overtaken by modernized architectures and infrastructure.”

In Holcombe’s first year, USPTO spent about $43 million to stabilize its current infrastructure and then another $150 million over the next four years to modernize systems and applications.

In addition to the basic modernization efforts, Holcombe said he also changed the way the USPTO viewed technology as an asset. He said the idea was to constantly modernize, but also stop programs that weren’t making progress or weren’t meeting mission goals.

“The other business units in your agency or bureau need to have skin in the game, and in order to do that, you have to have people that are representatives of the business unit that are actually making decisions on budget and priorities, not necessarily the IP or technical specifications. Of course, they come up with the requirements. What we’re talking about is having two people in charge of a product. Those two people are your business unit head and your technical architect or your technical lead, and those two are responsible for running the product team,” he said. “Then what you do every 90 days as review before the Quarterly Review Board. We actually had all the deputy business unit heads decide on what was going to be funded in the next quarter and what was going to be adapted or killed in the next quarter. So every 90 days, you had your pulse on what is going on, and that sense of urgency began to creep up.”

Holcombe said this approach make sure the “dog was wagging the tail” and not “the tail wagging the dog” when it came to mission-focused IT modernization.

The modernization efforts over the last several years let USPTO invest heavily in artificial intelligence capabilities. Its employees have access to several tools to review documents and reduce the burden on examiners for administrative and clerical tasks. And before Holcombe left, the agency issued a request for information seeking technology that could improve the efficiency in the patent and trademark examining processes. Some examples the agency highlighted in the RFI are those around IT improvements, robotic process automation (RPA) bot development/usage, and new code or ideas to improve current processes.

Additionally, USPTO is using generative AI and artificial intelligence for code assistance, refactoring its code and translating old code to work in the cloud.

Holcombe said the agency started this effort in 2024 and initial pilots demonstrated it could accurately translate about 80% of the old code and the other 20% needed experts to figure it out and optimize it.

Holcombe said two big remaining priorities for acting CIO Deborah Stephens include the continued implementation of a zero trust architecture and relying on GenAI tools to modernize legacy code faster, from three weeks to three days.

“That is the biggest promise right now of code assist AI, that it can go through all of the testing, because you can actually produce test scripts from your AI, and you get this done to the point where requirements are done, and you can have this accelerated cycle,” he said. “You need to go with a sense of urgency. And that’s what I left the organization with, a sense of urgency to get her done.”

The post Holcombe changed the way USPTO viewed IT first appeared on Federal News Network.

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PAYBACK TIME: US Department of War Planning Retribution for Failing Allies, Including Suspending Spain From the Alliance and ‘Reviewing’ UK’s Claims to the Falkland Islands

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1 month ago

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April 25, 2026

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A digital artwork featuring two men engaged in discussion, with a prominent image of Donald Trump in the background, creating a dramatic political atmosphere.A digital artwork featuring two men engaged in discussion, with a prominent image of Donald Trump in the background, creating a dramatic political atmosphere.Failing allies, leftist-Globalists Sanchez (Spain) and Starmer (UK) are about to taste retribution from Trump – Wiki Commons

Failing allies under pressure.

As we have been reporting here on TGP, US President Donald J. Trump is hardly the man to forgive and forget a slight or a betrayal.

And it’s been reported that Trump and his team have compiled a ‘naughty list’ of failing allies, and that some for of payback was expected against these countries.

And today, it arises that the Pentagon is exploring ways to punish NATO countries that failed to support the US during the Iran conflict – including drastic measures like suspending Spain from the alliance.

This was first reported by Reuters, but was picked up by a multitude of outlets, primarily in the UK, where there is widespread concern over the planned US ‘review’ of the British claim to the Falkland Islands.

Daily Mail reported:

“The policy options are detailed in an email expressing frustration at some allies’ perceived reluctance or refusal to grant Washington access, basing and overflight (ABO) rights for the Iran war. The email stated that ABO is ‘just the absolute baseline for NATO,’ according to the official, who added that the options were circulating at high levels in the Pentagon.

The memo also includes an option to consider reassessing US diplomatic support for longstanding European ‘imperial possessions,’ such as the Falkland Islands near Argentina.”

Needless to say, the response by the Euro-Globalists was immediate.

On the one hand, NATO states there is no provision to oust Spain, while the UK reaffirms its sovereignty over the South American Islands.

Read more:

NATO and the Bar Fight: A Bar Tab Europe Expects America To Pay Forever

The post PAYBACK TIME: US Department of War Planning Retribution for Failing Allies, Including Suspending Spain From the Alliance and ‘Reviewing’ UK’s Claims to the Falkland Islands appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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AXIS OF ECONOMIC LOSERS: Japan and Germany’s Socialist “Stakeholder” Takeover Turned Economic Superpowers Into Stagnant Ghost Towns – And the Left Wants This Poison for America

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1 month ago

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April 25, 2026

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Image depicting tattered flags of Germany and Japan with the text "The Axis of Losers," symbolizing the Axis Powers of World War II.Image depicting tattered flags of Germany and Japan with the text "The Axis of Losers," symbolizing the Axis Powers of World War II.Japan and Germany are dying from the same disease: socialism.

Back in the late 1980s and early ’90s, the so-called “experts,” the mainstream media, and every smug Ivy League economist couldn’t stop drooling over Japan. “Japan as Number One!” they screamed. Books flew off the shelves. Newsweek and Time covers warned of an “economic Pearl Harbor.”

Paul Harvey wailed about Japan buying up America with our own money. Paul Kennedy’s bestseller The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers basically coronated the Land of the Rising Sun as the next global hegemon.

The keiretsu system, the MITI bureaucrats, the lifetime employment model — it was all supposed to be the future. America was finished. The Japanese were going to own us.

Fast-forward to 2025-2026. Japan is a cautionary tale on life support. GDP per capita (PPP) hovers around a pathetic $55,000–$56,000 — crushed by America’s nearly $94,000. After taxes and cost of living? It’s even worse. The “Lost Decades” aren’t a glitch — they’re the feature. Zombie companies, endless stagnation, and a demographic death spiral made infinitely worse by policies that treat businesses like government welfare offices rather than wealth-creation machines.

The mainstream press will blame everything except the real culprit: the deliberate socialization of the corporation.

Keiretsu

In Japan, it’s the infamous keiretsu system — giant corporate clans glued together by cross-shareholdings and a house bank that plays mommy to every failing division. Lifetime employment. Seniority-based pay and promotions instead of merit. Company unions that treat every layoff like a war crime. The goal isn’t profit — heaven forbid — it’s “harmony” and keeping everyone employed forever. Result? Total paralysis. You can’t fire the dead weight. You can’t reallocate capital to what actually works. You can’t innovate like a maniac because revolution is “disruptive.”

When the 1990s bubble popped, they didn’t clean house — they dragged toxic debt around like a ball and chain for decades.

And don’t look now, but Germany — once the envy of Europe — is right there with them in the loser’s club. Years of zero or outright negative growth. Factories shuttering. The proud German export machine is coughing up blood. The vaunted “Rhine model” has turned into a slow-motion industrial suicide.

Mitbestimmung

Because Germany took the socialization even further with the notorious Mitbestimmung — “co-determination.” In big companies, workers and union reps literally occupy half the seats on the supervisory board. They get veto power over layoffs, plant closings, relocations, and major restructurings. It’s not capitalism anymore — it’s corporate communism with better engineering. The boardroom isn’t deciding how to crush competitors and reward shareholders; it’s negotiating how to protect today’s insiders at the expense of tomorrow’s growth.

Add in the deranged Energiewende — the green energy fantasy that tripled electricity costs — and you have the perfect storm. German industry is literally powering down while the rest of the world races ahead.

BMW/Tesla

Want proof? Look at BMW versus Tesla. BMW sells about 2.5 million vehicles a year. Tesla sells around 1.5 million. BMW’s market cap? A measly ~$55 billion. Tesla’s? Over twenty times higher. One company is run by visionaries who embrace the future and reward risk-takers. The other is run like a German labor ministry with a side hustle in cars.

This is what happens when you let “stakeholders” — code for unions, bureaucrats, and professional grievance-mongers — hijack the boardroom. The enterprise stops being a profit machine that lifts everyone through growth and becomes a social-work project designed to protect yesterday’s workers at the expense of tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, young people, and innovators.

It’s the exact same philosophy the American left has been trying to smuggle into U.S. boardrooms for years: ESG scores, “stakeholder capitalism,” DEI mandates, union power grabs, and the constant war on shareholders. They call it compassionate. It’s actually economic castration. Joseph Schumpeter’s “creative destruction” — the engine of real progress — gets sacrificed on the altar of Karl Marx’s class warfare dressed up in a suit and tie.

America’s model is raw, unapologetic, and brutally effective: The company exists to make money for its owners. Management executes or gets fired. You restructure, you pivot, you kill failing divisions without crying about “humanity.” It looks ugly to the European and Japanese salon socialists. It also creates the iPhones, the SpaceX rockets, the shale revolution, and the stock market that funds retirements for millions.

The Axis of Losers

Japan and Germany didn’t fail because of demographics or one bad energy policy. They failed because they turned their greatest companies into paralyzed extensions of the welfare state. The “Axis of Losers” chose preservation over progress — and they’re paying for it in lost decades and lost futures.

America still has a choice. We can reject this European-Japanese corporate socialism, tell the unions and the stakeholder grifters to pound sand, and keep rewarding the risk-takers and wealth-creators who actually build the future.

Or we can follow the Axis of Losers straight into the economic graveyard. The choice should be obvious — but the radical left never learns. They just rebrand failure as “equity” and keep selling the same poison. Don’t let them.

The post AXIS OF ECONOMIC LOSERS: Japan and Germany’s Socialist “Stakeholder” Takeover Turned Economic Superpowers Into Stagnant Ghost Towns – And the Left Wants This Poison for America appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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WATCH: Mother of Feral NYC Teen Who Body-Slammed and Stomped 15-Year-Old Girl’s Head DEFENDS Violent Son, Claims Victim ‘Bullied’ Him After She Refused to Give Him Her Phone Number

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1 month ago

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April 25, 2026

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Woman speaking to the media in a hallway while a man is seen attacking another person on the street in a separate scene.

Woman speaking to the media in a hallway while a man is seen attacking another person on the street in a separate scene.

A horrifying video from New York has sparked nationwide outrage after a 14-year-old boy was caught on camera brutally body-slamming a 15-year-old girl to the concrete and then stomping on her head, all because she refused to give him her phone number.

Now, the boy’s mother is publicly defending her son, claiming the victim was “bullying” him and that his savage and animalistic attack was somehow justified because he is a “humble” Christian.

The shocking attack occurred around 3:30 p.m. on Monday at the corner of East 107th Street and Third Avenue in East Harlem, just after school let out.

The 15-year-old girl, a ninth-grade student-athlete at East Harlem Scholars Academy Charter School heading to squash practice, was confronted by the 14-year-old masked suspect, who had reportedly been harassing her for weeks.

In the disturbing footage, the girl is seen trying to walk away and yelling, “Get the f–k away from me.”

The boy follows her, grabs her from behind, lifts her off the ground, slams her to the pavement, and then stomps directly on her head.

His friends can be heard laughing and egging him on as the girl lies motionless on the ground.

WATCH (VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED):

The girl suffered a concussion and was rushed to Harlem Hospital.

The 14-year-old suspect was arrested on Wednesday and appeared in Manhattan Family Court, where he was ordered held in custody by the Division of Youth and Family Justice.

Because both parties are minors, his name has not been publicly released.

In an interview captured outside the courthouse, the boy’s mother, Selma Allen, issued a wild defense of her violent son.

WATCH:

Allen claimed the 15-year-old girl had been bullying him in school, sending messages, and even pushing him down, and that this somehow justified the vicious attack.

“She was being a bully to him, that’s it,” Allen told reporters.

“He’s been complaining about her. I bring it to the principal’s attention but he don’t address it. The way my son is being bullied, he doesn’t want to go to school.”

She claimed her son is a “quiet” boy who “doesn’t provoke nobody,” and described him as a “humble Christian.”

“He don’t provoke nobody. But if you provoke him, he will lash out.”

Allen insisted her son had proof on WhatsApp and Instagram and repeatedly shifted blame onto the victim while downplaying the savage stomp on the girl’s head.

None of the reporters asked the obvious question: if the girl was truly bullying him, why was he aggressively demanding her phone number and following her?

The victim’s mother, Lucinda Arroyo, spoke out Thursday in an interview with the New York Post. She said her daughter had been dealing with weeks of harassment from the boy and said it was a “miracle” her daughter survived.

“She’s very upset that her whole life has been completely flipped upside down right now,” Arroyo said. “She’s known him as someone who’s bad news for a while.”

“This is not even bullying, this is outright assault — and he could have killed her,” she asserted.

Her daughter was left with a concussion, bleeding, a potential brain injury, crushing headaches and a twisted neck, and will require ongoing physical therapy.

The post WATCH: Mother of Feral NYC Teen Who Body-Slammed and Stomped 15-Year-Old Girl’s Head DEFENDS Violent Son, Claims Victim ‘Bullied’ Him After She Refused to Give Him Her Phone Number appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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