The executive summary is that the USPTO developers of Trademark Center made a big mistake in the coding of the priority claims in a trademark application — they failed to provide EUIPO and Benelux as trademark offices in which a priority application might have been filed. In doing so, they failed to learn from the identical mistake that had been made by the USPTO developers of Patent Center, who had failed to provide EPO and OAPI and ARIPO and EAPO as patent offices in which a priority application might have been filed. Continue reading “EUIPO and Benelux are missing from Trademark Center”
Another try with Bluesky and Mastodon
Well, folks, I am only slowly making progress at setting up Bluesky and Mastodon on this blog. This is a test posting on this blog to see if it propagates through to Bluesky and Mastodon.
As best I can discern, my Bluesky identifier is “ant-like.bsky.social” and my Mastodon ID is “@ant_like@mastodon.social”.
If any reader is an experienced user of Bluesky or Mastodon, I’d be grateful if you can look to see if I have made progress.
Mastodon, Bluesky, and RSS
Recently John Welch, the author of the TTABlog, posted to the e-Trademarks listserv to ask this:
I’ve been tweeting my blog posts for many years now, but I am fed up with the increasingly vile content on X/Twitter.
Can anyone recommend a good alternative?
Several listserv members offered very helpful suggestions. Perhaps the most helpful response was from Rebecca Tushnet, who wrote:
For my own reading, my current choice is Bluesky + a bunch of RSS feeds, including John’s indispensable TTABlog.
FWIW: I now have automatic crossposting from my blog to Mastodon, Bluesky, … RSS feed, and LinkedIn.
It is true, by the way, that John’s TTABlog is indispensable.
I have just now added a couple of plugins to my blog that I hope will automatically feed my blog postings to both Mastodon and Bluesky. I would be grateful if a reader who uses Mastodon can take a look to see if I succeeded. Likewise, I would be grateful if a reader who uses Bluesky can take a look to see if I succeeded.
I have also added an RSS feed icon which you can see at right. I would be grateful if a reader who uses an RSS reader can take a look to see if I succeeded.
Uruguay on a path to join the PCT
(Corrected my mistake about the consequences of Uruguay having joined only Chapter I.)
I am delighted to see that Uruguay is on the way to membership in the Patent Cooperation Treaty. It has passed both chambers of the Uruguayan legislature, and is on its way to the executive branch for signature. Continue reading “Uruguay on a path to join the PCT”
Attend a 2½-day live in-person Patent Cooperation Treaty seminar in scenic Summit County, Colorado
Attend a 2½-day live in-person Patent Cooperation Treaty seminar in scenic Summit County, Colorado, next to Lake Dillon and surrounded by snow-capped mountains. Maybe also attend an optional half-day program specifically directed to docketing of the PCT. Tuesday, June 25 to Thursday, June 27, 2024.
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For more information, or to register, click here.
One dollar to get to the Atlanta airport redux
(Note: this posting replaces the similarly titled posting on May 20, 2024. It provides a report on the results of the trip to the Atlanta airport and it offers examples of other more sensible rapid transit senior discount cards.)
The reader will recall that I had been in Atlanta in recent days to host the eleventh annual e-Trademarks listserv reception. During my time in Atlanta, I obtained a Senior Reduced Fare card for MARTA, the subway system in Atlanta, which is the bottom card at right, called “breeze”. I qualified for this card by being 65 years of age or older. (The other way to qualify is to have a disability.) This process is by now rather familiar to me, since I had previously obtained a senior discount card from the Washington Metro (top card at right, called “Senior Smartrip”) and from Denver’s Regional Transportation District (middle card at right, called “Special discount card”).
The Washington Metro Senior Smartrip card has no expiration date. The Denver regional special discount card recites an expiration date, but it is some 65 years in the future, a date I think I can safely ignore. But as you will see the Atlanta MARTA card unaccountably bears an expiration date a mere three years in the future.
It is understandable, I suppose, for such a reduced-fare card to have an expiration date in the near future if the way that the card holder were to qualify is by having a disability — I suppose there is some chance that the disability might go away at some later time. But it strikes me that the status of “being 65 years of age or older” cannot cease to be the case merely because of the passage of three years. Nonetheless you see that MARTA has in mind that I will need to go again to their headquarters in Atlanta three years from now, and to present myself in person, to prove that I continue to be at least 65 years old.
Oh, and for those keeping score at home, I can report that my trip to the Atlanta airport on May 21, 2024 did take place as planned, was very pleasant, and did cost a mere one dollar. The trip was faster than a trip to the airport by taxi or Lyft or Uber would have been.
Eleventh annual e-Trademarks reception was a success
I am delighted to be able to report that the eleventh annual e-Trademarks reception went very well. I think it was a complete success. You can see a very nice group photo taken by listserv member Doug Isenberg, quoted at right. Click to enlarge it. You will see 48 attendees in the photo, taken toward the end of the evening. Over the course of the event, some eighty attendees visited. Celebrity attendees included Debbie Roenning, director of the Madrid Legal Division of the World Intellectual Property Organization, David Gooder, Commissioner for Trademarks of the USPTO, and Derrick Brent, Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the USPTO.
One dollar to get to the Atlanta airport
This blog article, originally posted on May 20, 2024, has been replaced by a follow-up posting on May 23, 2024. The follow-up posting provides a report on the results of the trip to the Atlanta airport, and it offers examples of other more sensible rapid transit senior discount cards.
Assignment Center was broken for customers using IPv6, now fixed
Here is a subtle mistake that the USPTO made recently. The USPTO made it so that if a USPTO customer were to try to use Assignment Center using an IPv4 address, Assignment Center would work. But if instead the USPTO customer were to try to use Assignment Center using an IPv6 address (Wikipedia article), Assignment Center would fail to load. I reported this on May 7, 2024 in a posting to the Patent Practice listserv. You can see the listserv posting here.
Now on May 13, I see that the USPTO corrected its mistake. It is now possible to make use of Assignment Center even if you are using an IPv6 address.
I think what almost certainly happened is, one of the USPTO lurkers on the Patent Practice listserv saw the May 7 posting about the defect, and forwarded the posting to one of the Assignment Center developers, and eventually they corrected the defect.
USPTO fails to let me know that it fixed a defect that I reported in Assignment Center
Three times in February of 2024, by three different communications channels to the USPTO, I reported a defect in Assignment Center. The defect, shown at right, was that Assignment Center refused to permit me to record an assignment against a PCT application number.
Now, three months later, the USPTO did fix this defect. But the USPTO failed to let me know they fixed it. I had to stumble upon it by accident that the USPTO had fixed it. Continue reading “USPTO fails to let me know that it fixed a defect that I reported in Assignment Center”