Category: Trademarks

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Get your numbers in for the 2018 US trademark registration toteboard

It’s that time of year again.  A year ago we published the 2017 US Trademark Toteboard and before that, the 2016 US Trademark Registration Tote Board and before that, the 2015 US Trademark Registration Tote Board.  Now it’s time to get your numbers in for the fourth annual US Trademark Registration Tote Board.

The goal of this toteboard is to list the firms that helped clients obtain US trademark registrations in 2018.  The toteboard seeks to list US trademark registrations granted in 2018.    The closing date for the questionnaire will be Thursday, March 21, 2019.

You can see the previous Toteboards here.

To learn more and to report your numbers for the 2018 US Trademark Registration tote board, please click here.

It is also time to report your numbers for the 2018 US Design Patent tote board and the 2018 US Utility Patent tote board and the 2018 US Plant Patent tote board.

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Whither Daylight Saving Time?

More than five hours have passed since my blog posting that points out that right now you probably have an extra hour for e-filing of stuff at the International Bureau of WIPO.  Why do you have this extra hour?  You have this extra hour because probably you are in the US and you set your clocks forward.  And (this is the important part) the folks in Switzerland did not pick today to set their clocks forward.  (They will set their clocks forward in about three weeks, on March 31.)

Anyway, during this past five hours I sort of figured that at least one alert reader would have posted a comment about the imminent demise of Daylight Saving Time.  Yet, astonishingly, this has not happened!  So I will now discuss the imminent demise of Daylight Saving Time. Continue reading “Whither Daylight Saving Time?”

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Who charges how much for foreign payments?

As readers of this blog are by now well aware, my most recent obsession area of inquiry has been the sending and receiving of international bank wires.  More or less by accident I have stumbled upon smart ways to receive international bank wires.  As I describe in this blog article, more or less by accident our situation is that for our patent firm, we now receive our incoming foreign bank wires free of charge through Afex.com, and for my personal bank account, I receive my incoming foreign bank wires free of charge because the bank is USAA.

As for the foreign sender of funds, if the foreign sender of money to our patent firm happens to be a customer of Afex.com, they can send money to us and they will likewise not have to pay any fee (other than perhaps a currency conversion fee).

But how about sending bank wires?  Who charges more and who charges less for sending bank wires to foreign countries?  Here is a specific example of what it would cost to send about ten thousand dollars to Switzerland by any of three different providers.  I find the price differences to be striking. Continue reading “Who charges how much for foreign payments?”

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Today is a snow day at the USPTO

Today, Wednesday, February 20, 2019 is a snow day.  This means that any document that you needed to file today at the USPTO will be timely if you file it by tomorrow, Thursday, February 21.

(This might be as good a time as any to subscribe to this blog.)

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USPTO will be closed Monday January 14, 2019

The USPTO will be closed on Monday, January 14, 2019 because of a dusting of snow.  (OPM announcement.)

The small amount of snow giving rise to this closure would not even be noticed in other parts of the US such as the high altitudes of Colorado where Oppedahl Patent Law Firm LLC is located.  (Oppedahl Patent Law Firm LLC will be open as usual on Monday, January 14, 2019.)

The closing of the USPTO means that any response that would be due on Monday, January 14, 2019 will be considered timely if it is filed by Tuesday, January 15, 2019.

 

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USPTO will be closed on December 24, will reopen as usual on December 26

The President has signed an executive order dated December 19, 2018 closing most federal government offices (including the USPTO) on Monday, December 24, 2018.  This of course raises the usual question whether or not the closure constitutes “a federal holiday in the District of Columbia”.  To answer this question, Director Iancu has issued a statement dated Friday, December 21, 2018 deeming the closure to be such a federal holiday.

This means that any response that would be due at the USPTO on December 22, 23, 24, or 25, 2018 will be timely if it is filed on Wednesday, December 26, 2018.

The US entered a partial shutdown of the federal government a few hours ago, and it would thus be natural to wonder whether this might affect the USPTO, for example when the Office would be scheduled to reopen on Wednesday, December 26.  Here is what the USPTO web site says:

… the USPTO remains open for business as normal. This is possible because the agency has access to prior-year fee collections, which enables the USPTO to continue normal operations for a few weeks. Should the USPTO exhaust these funds before a partial government shutdown comes to an end, the agency would have to shut down at that time, although a small staff would continue to work to accept new applications and maintain IT infrastructure, among other functions.

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US filers and filing at WIPO and daylight saving time

Keep in mind that most locations in the US will turn off daylight saving time today, but today is not the day that Switzerland will turn off daylight saving time.  (Switzerland turned off DST a week ago.)

Those who are filing documents at the International Bureau — documents that need a same-day filing date — should check to make sure they know what time it is in Switzerland as of today.

The main point here is that for a US filer, everything is now “back to normal”.  Whatever time zone offset a US filer is accustomed to between his or her time zone and Geneva, that offset is back to normal.

ePCT will tell you what time it is in Switzerland.