Category: Industrial Designs

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USPTO continues to fail to provide up-to-date web security

It’s been many years since I first tried to nudge the USPTO in the direction of providing up-to-date web security for its customers.  Up-to-date web security includes at least three measures:

  • HTTPS connections for all e-commerce web sites
  • PFS (perfect forward secrecy) for all HTTPS web sites
  • DNSSEC (Domain Name System security) for all domain names

I’m not the only one trying to nudge the USPTO in the right direction.  No less an authority than the White House has also tried to nudge the USPTO in this direction, by means of presidential executive order:

  • In 2008, the White House directed all US government agencies (including the USPTO) to implement DNSSEC on all of their domain names (memorandum M-08-233).
  • In 2015, the White House directed all US government agencies (including the USPTO) to implement HTTPS on all of their web sites (memorandum M-15-13).

A White House CIO web page explains to US government agencies how to implement HTTPS on their web sites.  The web page says:

Federal websites that do not convert to HTTPS will not keep pace with privacy and security practices used by commercial organizations, and with current and upcoming Internet standards. This leaves Americans vulnerable to known threats, and may reduce their confidence in their government.

In August of 2014 I urged the USPTO to implement HTTPS on its servers (“USPTO needs to implement SSL and PFS on all servers“).  I pointed out that TESS, TEAS, EPAS, ETAS, AOTW, PATFT, and TSDR all lacked HTTPS and PFS.  I pointed out that EPO and WIPO have PFS on their servers that have HTTPS.

What progress has USPTO made since August of 2014 when I nudged the USPTO?  What progress has USPTO made since June of 2015 when the President nudged the USPTO? Continue reading “USPTO continues to fail to provide up-to-date web security”

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USPTO’s Design Day 2016 will sell out

As I mentioned here yesterday, registration opened yesterday for USPTO’s Design Day 2016 which will take place on Tuesday, April 19, 2016.

The event opened with 350 seats available.  As of right now, 150 seats are taken.  There are only 200 seats left.  It’s likely the event will sell out well before April 19.

One of the industry speakers at this event will be Brian Kelleghan, president of Bison Designs in Longmont, Colorado.  Bison Designs is a leading designer and manufacturer of accessories including carabiners and bottle openers.  Brian’s company was obtaining and making use of design patents long before recent events made it fashionable to get design patents.  Attendees at this event will get to see striking, even astonishing examples of patented designs and will get to hear from Brian about ways that design patents have benefited his company.

Design day offers a unique opportunity for practitioners and members of industry alike to learn from USPTO people, from experienced practitioners, and from people like Brian.  Don’t miss it!

To register, click on the link above.

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Register now for Design Day 2016 at the USPTO

Registration is now open for Design Day 2016 at the USPTO.  This will be Tuesday, April 19, 2016 from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM.  It will be at the USPTO in Alexandria, Virginia.   The agenda includes:

  • Developments at the USPTO including training of new design patent examiners, and the new ID5 initiative
  • Updates on U.S. implementation of the Hague system from WIPO’s perspective
  • Best practice tips and pitfalls of design patent prosecution from a panel of experienced practitioners and USPTO examiners
  • Learn from industry leaders about how to take a design from concept to patenting to enforcement
  • Updates and changes to the MPEP and the effect on design practice
  • Important design patent decisions over the past year, as summarized in the popular case law wrap-up

To register, click here.

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2015 Toteboards Published

From 2005 to 2014, Intellectual Property Today magazine served the IP community by providing toteboards ranking US patent and trademark firms according to the number of patents and trademarks obtained for clients each year.

The Ant-Like Persistence blog now carries on this tradition.  Here are the 2015 US toteboards.  You can see:

You can also see previous US Design Patent Toteboards for 2014, 2013, and 2012.

These toteboards rely upon reported numbers from patent and trademark firms.  Unfortunately, not all patent and trademark firms reported their numbers, which doubtless left some omissions in the rankings.  For the utility and design patent toteboards, we were able to carry out searches on a USPTO database to remedy some of the omissions.  As for US trademark registrations, however, it is not easy to carry out searches by trademark firm.  So there are probably more omissions in that toteboard.

Hopefully by next year most patent and trademark firms will be aware of these toteboards and will report their numbers.

If your firm did not respond and is not listed in these 2015 toteboards, feel free to post a comment below with your firm’s totals for 2015 and, if you like, the approximate ranking that you think would have resulted for your firm.

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Get listed in the 2015 US Utility Patent and Trademark Tote Boards!

Horror vacui.  At the beginning of each calendar year, we are all accustomed to adding up our US utility patent totals and US trademark totals, and sending them to Intellectual Property Today magazine so that they may be listed in the IP Today tote boards.  But as far as I can tell, IP Today is out of business.

As you know, for two years now this blog has sponsored a US design patent tote board.  The apparent demise of IP Today has prompted me to set up successor tote boards for US utility patents and US trademark registrations.

If you would like your firm to be listed in the 2015 US design patent tote board, please act quickly because I plan to close responses for that tote board at the end of the day on February 1, 2016.

If you would like your firm to be listed in the 2015 US utility patent tote board, please respond here by February 15, 2016.

If you would like your firm to be listed in the 2015 US trademark registration tote board, please respond here by February 15, 2016.

These tote boards won’t serve their readers well unless nearly everybody gets listed.  So please forward this blog post to everybody you know who might like to be listed and who might not be aware of this opportunity.

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Improving QPIDS

QPIDS is pretty good but it could be much better.  The point of QPIDS, of course, is that sometimes you find an urgent need to file an IDS at a time when, unfortunately, the Issue Fee has already been paid.  Before QPIDS, most applicants facing such a problem were stuck filing (and paying for) an RCE, with all of the drawbacks that come with it.

Continue reading “Improving QPIDS”

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Get your numbers in for the 2015 Design Patent Toteboard

A year ago I published the 2014 Design Patent Toteboard.  Now it’s time to finalize and publish the 2015 Design Patent Toteboard.

The goal of this toteboard is to list the firms that helped clients to obtain US design patents in 2015.  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, 2015.

To respond, click here.