Category: Industrial Designs

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Time of day returns to normal for US filers filing at the International Bureau

Readers will recall my blog post of two weeks ago in which I described that an American filer would (for a limited time of two weeks) have an extra hour during which to file a same-day filing at the IB.  Well, now it’s back to normal.  Now the drop-dead time for e-filing (or fax filing) is the usual 4PM (Mountain Time).

So for your PCT filing at the RO/IB, or your direct filing of a Hague Agreement design application, or your payment of a renewal for a Madrid Protocol international trademark registration, or an Article 19 amendment, or a PCT Demand … it’s back to normal.

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Filing at the International Bureau and Daylight Saving Time

It’s that time of year again.  The time of year when it is important to keep track of the fact that Daylight Saving Time is different in Switzerland from the way it is in the United States.  This is important because you might be in the US, and you might be e-filing (or fax-filing) some document with the International Bureau of WIPO. Continue reading “Filing at the International Bureau and Daylight Saving Time”

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Who is the Director of the USPTO?

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, by statute, any issued US patent or US trademark registration must be “signed by the Director”.   So the question “who is the Director?” is not an idle question.

As of today (screen shot at right), the Department of Commerce web site still lists the position of Director as “vacant”.

Yesterday’s issued US patents and US trademark registrations bore Michelle Lee’s signature, just as on Tuesdays before.

 

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Patents and trademark registrations “shall be signed by the Director”

(Corrected thanks to David Boundy, as to which Director succeeded which.)

Normally the statutory requirement that a patent issued by the USPTO, or a trademark registration certificate issued by the USPTO, “shall be signed by the Director” (35 U.S. Code § 153 and 15 U.S. Code § 1057) is sort of boring.  But just now, the USPTO expressly refuses to say who is the Director of the USPTO.  What does this mean for patents and trademark registrations that have issued on recent Tuesdays? Continue reading “Patents and trademark registrations “shall be signed by the Director””

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Behind the scenes in PAIR and EFS-Web

One of the important listservs that all US patent practitioners should subscribe to is the PAIR listserv.  This is a listserv designed, oddly enough, for users of PAIR.  Earlier today, alert listserv member William B. Slate posted a screen shot from PAIR showing that the “search by customer number” menu was missing.  And he’s right.  It was missing.  Later it returned in PAIR.  William’s posting to the listserv prompted me to say a few words about how PAIR actually works and why it is actually cause for astonishment any time that PAIR actually works. Continue reading “Behind the scenes in PAIR and EFS-Web”

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First of the 2016 Tote Boards posted

The 2016 Design Patent Toteboard has been posted.

The response periods for the 2016 Utility Patent and 2016 Trademark toteboards is being extended from January 20 to January 23.

Several well-known firms that do trademark prosecution have not yet responded.  If you know someone at one of these firms, you might want to pass along a reminder to them.  These include:

  • K&L Gates
  • Leydig Voit
  • Banner & Witcoff
  • Head, Johnson & Kachigian
  • Antionette M Tease PLLC
  • Andrus Intellectual Property Law
  • Lee & Hayes PLLC
  • Chernoff Vilhauer LLP
  • Dorsey & Whitney
  • Alston & Bird LLP
  • Arent Fox LLP
  • Baker Botts L.L.P.
  • Fross Zelnick
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Get your numbers in for the 2016 design patent toteboard

A year ago I published the 2015 Design Patent Toteboard.  Now it’s time to finalize and publish the 2016 Design Patent Toteboard.

The goal of this toteboard is to list the firms that helped clients to obtain US design patents in 2016.  It will rank the firms according to the number of US design patents obtained.  Respondents are asked to report only US design patents for which the firm is listed on the front page of the granted patent.  Please respond by January 15, 2017.

To respond, click here.