I find it interesting that nowadays, a lot of my blog traffic comes from Reddit. Continue reading “Where my blog traffic comes from?”
Where my blog traffic comes from?
What kinds of USPTO communications are secure and not secure?
When I was first in practice, a long time ago, the only ways to communicate with a patent examiner at the USPTO were:
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- postal mail (and couriers)
- telephone calls
- fax
- hand-carry.
The USPTO’s policy, to the extent that such a thing had been thought about at all, was that all of these kinds of communication were sufficiently secure as to satisfy national security requirements. You might file a patent application the contents of which were so sensitive that a foreign filing licence would not be granted, and it was okay that the way you sent it to the USPTO was by postal service.
But what kinds of communication are actually secure? As I discuss below, the USPTO has this kind of thing absolutely backwards. What USPTO thinks is secure is not secure, and vice versa. Continue reading “What kinds of USPTO communications are secure and not secure?”
It’s time to get in your numbers for the 2025 toteboards
Hello readers. It is now 2026 and this means it is time to get in your numbers for the 2025 toteboards:
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- click here to get in your numbers for the Fourteenth Annual US design patent toteboard
- click here to get in your numbers for the Eleventh Annual US utility patent toteboard
- click here to get in your numbers for the Seventh Annual US plant patent toteboard
- click here to get in your numbers for the Eleventh Annual US trademark toteboard
The goal is to recognize and rank law firms in the US based upon the numbers of US design patents, US utility patents, US plant patents, and US trademark registrations each firm obtained for clients in 2025.
The questionnaires will close on Friday, February 13, 2026.
Here is a page suggesting how you might obtain these numbers.
Every year after I post the results of the toteboards, I get sad emails from firms that want me to accept their numbers late. This would, of course, typically result in kicking other firms down in the rankings — other firms that got their numbers in on time. Please help to reduce the number of such sad emails that I will receive this year. Maybe you are a person at your firm who is responsible for getting these numbers in. If so, please get your numbers in! Otherwise, please forward this blog posting to somebody at your firm to make sure that somebody at your firm gets the numbers in for your firm.
You can see the previous toteboards here, going back to the earliest toteboard in 2012.
What to do if your email service provider has been bouncing our listserv postings
In recent days, our email server for our listservs may have removed your email address from membership in one or another of the listservs. Assuming that you did not want this, what should you do? Continue reading “What to do if your email service provider has been bouncing our listserv postings”
Should the listserv member click on the link? Is it spearphishing?
Oppedahl Patent Law Firm LLC (“OPLF”) sponsors many listservs (email discussion groups for intellectual property professionals, here is a list of them), some with over a thousand members. In recent days, hundreds of members of the listservs have started to receive email messages that prompted questions, such as:
I received an email, and I need to know whether it is a phishing hack. If it’s legitimate, I will respond accordingly.
Another listserv member responded:
Got same thing yesterday. Is real. The question is why.
What do these emails mean? Why are the listserv members receiving the emails? How should listserv members respond? In this blog posting, I try to answer these questions. Continue reading “Should the listserv member click on the link? Is it spearphishing?”
Listservs seem to be back in service
Hello listserv colleagues! I think the listservs are more or less back in service. But for about 30% of our listserv members, the member’s email service provider (ESP) is blocking our postings as spam. If you are in that 30%, I urge you to direct your ESP to stop the blocking. This may include whitelisting the new IP address or speaking frankly with your ESP.
And if you posted anything to any of the listservs since about December 21, I am sorry to say you will probably need to repost it.
It took a lot of my professional time to deal with this. And the hosting service will cost a bit more in perpetuity. I will gladly receive donations to help support this, as detailed below.
Details follow. Continue reading “Listservs seem to be back in service”
Reduction In Force at the USPTO
An article just now in The Guardian says:
In a memo seen by the Guardian, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced a “reduction in force” (RIF) program of layoffs at the agency on Wednesday, the first reported agency to do so.
“Approximately one percent of the USPTO workforce will be affected by this RIF,” wrote Valencia Martin Wallace, acting commissioner for the USPTO, wrote to employees at the agency. The USPTO did not respond to a request for comment
How to reach a USPTO person if you can’t reach them by phone
In a previous blog article I described that it seems all of the phones at the USPTO are broken for incoming calls. Here is a practice tip.
If the person’s phone number starts “571-272”, then change the “272” to “273”. This yields a telephone number that is probably that person’s private fax number. You can then send a fax and ask the person to call you back.
All USPTO phones seem to be broken
From recent discussions on the Patent Practice listserv, it seems that it is impossible just now to place a telephone call to anyone at the USPTO. Continue reading “All USPTO phones seem to be broken”
2024 Toteboards are now available
I am pleased to present the 2024 toteboards: