For over 200 years, the basic role of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has remained the same — "to promote the progress of science and the useful arts by securing for limited times to inventors the exclusive right to their respective discoveries." The USPTO is a federal agency in the Department of Commerce located in Alexandria, Virginia. The primary services the agency provides include processing patent and trademark applications and disseminating patent and trademark information. USPTO programs are conducted under the following principal statutory authorities: