Category: Trademarks

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What to do if your email service provider is blocking our listserv postings

Back on about November 17 we migrated our listserv server from a shared-hosting server to a dedicated server.  This means that our listserv postings are coming from a different IP address now than they used to.

It seems that some email service providers have hair-trigger spam fighting systems that react in a very strong way to email traffic emanating from a new IP address.  Some of the members of our listservs have have found that some or even all of our listserv messages are failing to reach them.

if this has happened to you, there are several things that you can do to help. Continue reading “What to do if your email service provider is blocking our listserv postings”

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Get your numbers in for the 2019 Tote Boards

It’s that time of year again.   Get your numbers in if you want your firm to be listed in:

  • the Eighth Annual US Design Patent Top Filers Tote Board
  • the Fifth Annual US Trademark Registration Top Filers Tote Board
  • the Fifth Annual US Utility Patent Top Filers Tote Board
  • the Third Annual US Plant Patent Top Filers Tote Board

These Tote Boards will rank the top patent and trademark firms for carrying out filings in 2019 in these categories.  The 2019 Tote Boards will join the previous fifteen Tote Boards which go back as far as 2012.

The closing date for getting in your numbers will be Friday, January 31, 2020.

Every year, some firm misses out by failing to get its numbers in by the closing date.  Don’t be that firm!  Get your numbers in early.  Click here for the:

  • response form for the 2019 (eighth annual) US design patent top filers tote board
  • response form for the 2019 (fifth annual) US trademark registration top filers tote board
  • response form for the 2019 (fifth annual) US utility patent top filers tote board
  • response form for the 2019 (third annual) US plant patent top filers tote board
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January 1, 2020 is a holiday at the USPTO

Wednesday, January 1, 2020 will be a federal holiday in the District of Columbia.  This means the USPTO will be closed.  This means that any action that would be due at the USPTO on January 1 will be timely if it is done by Thursday, January 2, 2020.

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Trademark Office has not backed down yet on post office boxes

Back on September 24th (blog article) a very high-up person in the Office of the Commissioner for Trademarks had telephoned me, promising me that Real Soon Now the Trademark Office would issue yet another Exam Guideline, doing the right thing about post office boxes.  Unfortunately that has not happened.  Trademark practitioners are starting to receive super-intrusive Office Actions demanding things like revealing the personal home addresses of clients.  What can be done about all of this? Continue reading “Trademark Office has not backed down yet on post office boxes”

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Today is the day for Malaysia and the Madrid Protocol

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Today is the day.  As of today, a trademark owner in Malaysia can file a Madrid Protocol application to pursue protection in one or more Offices outside of Malaysia. Starting today, a trademark owner outside of Malaysia can file a Subsequent Designation to Malaysia (or can file a new Madrid Protocol application designating Malaysia).

The two-letter code for Malaysia is “MY”.

 

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Why do we need so many specimens of use nowadays?

Nowadays when the time comes to do a six-year or ten-year renewal of a US trademark registration, I find that I often need to spend a lot of extra professional time explaining to the client why I feel we need to have lots of extra specimens of use. And I find I often need to spend a lot of extra professional time explaining to the client why I feel we need to work harder than ever before on canceling goods and services from the registration as part of the renewal process. I’ll explain why this is. Continue reading “Why do we need so many specimens of use nowadays?”

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December 24 and 25 are holidays at the USPTO

It was already known (blog post) that Wednesday, December 25, 2019 will be a federal holiday in the District of Columbia.  Today’s news is that in addition, by order of the President, the federal government will be closed on Tuesday, December 24.  This means the USPTO will be closed not only on December 25 but also on December 24.  This means that any action that would be due at the USPTO on December 24 or 25 will be timely if it is done by Thursday, December 26, 2019.

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December 25 is a holiday at the USPTO

Wednesday, December 25, 2019 will be a federal holiday in the District of Columbia.  This means the USPTO will be closed.  This means that any action that would be due at the USPTO on December 25 will be timely if it is done by Thursday, December 26, 2019.

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Listserv update redux

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(Update:  See a followup message here about a step that you might take to try to get the listservs working for you again.)

(See also I turned on munging.)

(Updated to describe shipment of digital multimeters.)

Readers may recall my recent blog article about woes with outbound emails from our listserv server.

Alert listserv member Diane L. Gardner of Mastermind IP Law P.C. posted this comment to that blog article:

From my IT provider:

They do not have a spf record.

And her IT provider was absolutely right.  I had not attended to setting up an SPF record on our new dedicated server.  I ought to have done that sooner.  Prompted by her posting, we added the SPF record.  Here is the record:

v=spf1 +mx +a +ip4:162.213.248.195 ~all

We have sent two of our digital multimeters to Diane — one for her and one for her IT provider.  Thanks to both of you!

We also corrected a PTR (reverse DNS lookup) record.  The PTR record is “195.248.213.162.in-addr.arpa.” pointing to “server1.oppedahl-lists.com.”.

There’s a chance these two changes might help a little.

We already had and still have a DKIM record.  The DKIM record is “server1.oppedahl-lists.com.” pointing to “v=DKIM1; k=rsa; p=[public key]”.

Thanks again to the nice commenter.