Month: January 2020

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Who can figure out how I obtained this DAS certificate?

On November 18, 2019 I posted this blog article reporting the quite remarkable news that IP Australia had joined the DAS system for purposes of trademarks.  Even now in January 2020 no other Office is a member of DAS for purposes of trademarks.  In that blog article I proved to you that IP Australia must really be an Accessing Office for purposes of trademarks, and I did it by posting an actual Certificate of Availability from the DAS system, showing that US trademark application number 77087422 is available to IP Australia through the DAS system.  But more than a month has passed during which no trademark practitioner raised the following questions:

  1. How did I obtain this Certificate of Availability?
  2. If the USPTO is not a depositing Office for trademarks, then how is it that this US trademark application is available to IP Australia in DAS?  
  3. To obtain this Certificate, I had to somehow get a DAS access code to plug into the DAS system. Where did I get this DAS access code, given that the USPTO does not provide DAS access codes for trademark applications?
  4. And most importantly, how is it that no reader of this blog even caught on that these questions needed to be asked?

If you somehow figure out or already know the answers to questions 1-3, please post a comment below.  In doing so, you will gain recognition as a truly trendy, modern, and up-to-date trademark practitioner.  

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What to do if your email service provider is blocking our listserv postings

Back on about November 17 we migrated our listserv server from a shared-hosting server to a dedicated server.  This means that our listserv postings are coming from a different IP address now than they used to.

It seems that some email service providers have hair-trigger spam fighting systems that react in a very strong way to email traffic emanating from a new IP address.  Some of the members of our listservs have have found that some or even all of our listserv messages are failing to reach them.

if this has happened to you, there are several things that you can do to help. Continue reading “What to do if your email service provider is blocking our listserv postings”

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Only 103 “Super Patent” slots remaining out of 500

Readers will recall my blog article about “Super Patents” and how to get them.  The idea is to file a PCT application and be fortunate enough that it gets accepted into the Collaborative Search and Examination (“CS&E”) pilot program.

This is a pilot program created by the five biggest patent offices (China, Europe, Japan, Korea, US) in which an applicant gets to have its claims searched and examined by all five patent offices.  The pilot program began about a year and a half ago and will wrap up in 2020.  

The way that the pilot program was set up, each of the five Offices was willing to take on the role of ISA for purposes of CS&E in one hundred PCT applications.  Doing the math, this means that all told, five hundred PCT applicants would be so lucky as to get their applications into this program.

Each Office, in its role as ISA, was thus necessarily keeping track of the number of PCT applications that it had accepted into the CS&E program.  Each Office would stop accepting new cases once it hit the limit of one hundred.

One of the offices hit its limit of one hundred a couple of weeks ago, and another office hit its limit just yesterday.  Which raises the natural question, right now in January of 2020, how many slots are still open?  I’ll tell you. Continue reading “Only 103 “Super Patent” slots remaining out of 500″

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Another fax bites the dust – Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property

Yes, that patent office.  The one where Albert Einstein worked as a patent examiner for a while before becoming famous.  The Swiss patent office has has joined the ever-growing list of patent offices (previous blog post) that have officially stopped receiving faxes.  You can see that Office’s January 2, 2020 update in the PCT Applicant’s Guide in which that Office notifies that it is pulling the plug on its fax machine.

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Today is the day! Israel now belongs to Hague Agreement

Yes, today is the day that the Hague Agreement enters into force in Israel.  This is an important development for the Hague system, which is the international filing mechanism for protection of industrial designs.

I blogged about this imminent development in Israel back on October 8, 2019.

As of today, companies and designers from Israel can begin using the Hague system to protect their industrial designs.  The applicant can pursue protection in many countries through a single international application and a single set of fees.

Likewise from today, those located outside of Israel will be able to seek design protection in Israel through the Hague system.

The two-letter code is “IL”.

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JPO is now a Depositing Office for designs

Japan Patent Office(Update:  We have a winner!  A trendy, modern and up-to-date Japanese design practitioner has won the prize.  Read the update blog article here.)

Design practitioners rely on the DAS system for the interchange of electronic certified copies of priority applications.  Such a system becomes more and more useful as more and more Offices participate.

Today is a big day.  Today, the Japanese Patent Office became a Depositing Office in the DAS system for industrial designs.

Continue reading “JPO is now a Depositing Office for designs”

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Get your numbers in for the 2019 Tote Boards

It’s that time of year again.   Get your numbers in if you want your firm to be listed in:

  • the Eighth Annual US Design Patent Top Filers Tote Board
  • the Fifth Annual US Trademark Registration Top Filers Tote Board
  • the Fifth Annual US Utility Patent Top Filers Tote Board
  • the Third Annual US Plant Patent Top Filers Tote Board

These Tote Boards will rank the top patent and trademark firms for carrying out filings in 2019 in these categories.  The 2019 Tote Boards will join the previous fifteen Tote Boards which go back as far as 2012.

The closing date for getting in your numbers will be Friday, January 31, 2020.

Every year, some firm misses out by failing to get its numbers in by the closing date.  Don’t be that firm!  Get your numbers in early.  Click here for the:

  • response form for the 2019 (eighth annual) US design patent top filers tote board
  • response form for the 2019 (fifth annual) US trademark registration top filers tote board
  • response form for the 2019 (fifth annual) US utility patent top filers tote board
  • response form for the 2019 (third annual) US plant patent top filers tote board