Category: Trademarks

Yesterday (blog article) I reported half a dozen US trademark applications that had been filed as much as 2½ years ago and still did not have an Examining Attorney.   Here are five more US trademark applications that were filed a long time ago and still do not have an Examining Attorney:

Continue reading “More US trademark applications that lack an Examining Attorney”

As I explain in this blog article,  “presentation copies” from the USPTO are not very good from a “suitability for framing” point of view.  But what is much worse is that “presentation copies” are going to cause harm to the trademark community.  The Trademark Office’s recent spotlight on “presentation copies”, and indeed the Trademark Office’s recent program of giving them away for free, will very predictably embolden some trademark owners in overstating the breadth of their trademark rights.  The Trademark Office will be aiding and abetting the intimidation of parties who are not actually doing anything wrong but who are the target of overly broad cease-and-desist letters.  Continue reading “Why a “presentation copy” from the USPTO is no good”

(July 11, 2022.  Updated to provide a TSDR link for each application number.  Still none of the applications has been given to an Examining Attorney.)

The USPTO reports a pendency of around six to seven months for newly filed US trademark applications.  But there are quite a few trademark applications that were filed a lot longer ago than that, that still do not have an Examining Attorney.  Here are some examples:

As you will see, the oldest one on this list was filed more than 2½ years ago and still does not have an Examining Attorney.   I hope and trust that some reader of this blog article who works in the Trademark Office will pass along these six application numbers to whoever it is that is responsible for assigning Examining Attorneys to trademark applications.

It strikes me that this is the sort of thing that computers are supposed to be good at.  How can it possibly be that the Trademark Office does not already have some automated process that runs, say, once a month, and generates a report like this?  Such a report would permit the appropriate Trademark Office person to take corrective action (see 37 C.F.R. § 2.23(d) and TMEP § 108.03) by assigning an Examining Attorney.

(Corrected with two corrections prompted by alert reader Ken Boone.  The starting number was 6741505, not 6741504.  Thus the count of issued registrations was 7477, not 7478.  Thank you, Ken.)

Today, May 31, 2022, a second round of US trademarks got registered under the new “electronic certificate” program.

The lowest US trademark registration number handed out today was 6741505.  The highest US trademark registration number handed out today was 6748981.  So it looks like the Trademark Office issued 7477 US trademark registrations today.  That number is roughly consistent with the numbers from a few weeks ago, before the big SNAFU on May 10, 2022.

The electronic registration certificates all seem to be present in TSDR right now at 5:41 AM Eastern Time.

The certificate for the lowest registration number got cryptographically signed on May 20, 2022 at 4:32 AM.  The certificate for the highest registration number got cryptographically signed on May 27, 2022 at 8:02 AM.

(Updated with the US Postal Service delivery.)

Yes, the title says it all.  One hundred eleven trademark applicants and practitioners have signed a letter asking Commissioner for Trademarks David S. Gooder to stop demanding to know where trademark applicants sleep at night.  You can see the letter here.  A courtesy copy of the letter has been emailed to Commissioner Gooder today.  The US Postal Service delivered the physical letter on May 31, 2022 at 7:31 AM as you can see here.

(Update:  the letter has been sent.  See blog article.)

Hello, dear readers.  This is urgent.

Yesterday, the Trademark Office published 20837 supposedly private email addresses of trademark applicants, even though two years ago it promised the Trademark Public Advisory Committee it would protect those email addresses from public view (blog article).  

If the Trademark Office is going to slip up and reveal twenty thousand supposedly private applicant email addresses, then it is only a matter of time before the Trademark Office slips up and reveals a hundred thousand addresses where trademark applicants sleep at night.

And a few of them will be people who absolutely did not want the world to know where they sleep at night, and for very good reasons, and it will be the kind of thing that we will all feel sick to our stomachs about.  That’s if we don’t do something about it.

So here it is, a letter for review and possible signature.  I want it to land on Commissioner Gooder’s desk right away, while he is still stinging from the realization yesterday that his office published the twenty thousand supposedly private email addresses.  I have in mind closing this letter for signature two days from now (Friday) at close of business.  So let’s not put this off.  Let’s review the letter today and if you are going to sign it, please sign it today.  And if you know of somebody else that you think ought to know about this letter, please bring this to their attention today.

To see the letter, and for possible signature, click here.