The European Union Intellectual Property Office (the office formerly known as OHIM) has released a fascinating new image searching system for trademarks. You can upload an image and the system will look for similar images, based upon some sort of AI (artificial intelligence) algorithm. I decided to try it out. I uploaded the familiar image that you see at right. Here is a small portion of what the system found:
Trademark files from the days before computers
Today we received an interesting letter from the post-registration branch at the USPTO. The letter says that the Section 15 papers that we filed a couple of months ago (to make a registration “incontestable“) are being bounced. The Section 15 fee that we paid will be refunded, the letter explains. The letter explains that the Section 15 papers that we filed “remain in the record”. The Section 15 papers “will not be returned to you and will not be processed or reviewed.” Can you guess why this happened?
Continue reading “Trademark files from the days before computers”
TTABlog’s got legs!
Today marks the twelfth anniversary of the TTABlog. Yes, the first-ever posting of the TTABlog was on November 8, 2004. Congratulations and thanks to John L. Welch for all these years of service to the trademark community!
By comparison the Ant-Like Persistence blog is a mere 2½ years old.
Again, kudos and thanks to John!
Midnight at WIPO returns to normal
A week ago I blogged that filers filing things at WIPO would have an extra hour to get a same-day filing date. As of a week ago, you could file as late as 5 PM Mountain Time and still get a same-day filing date.
Now today things return to normal. To get a same-day filing date at WIPO, you will need to file by 4 PM.
Good news for a domain name owner
When parties fight over who should own an Internet domain name, sometimes it is easy to see who should win and who should lose. Sometimes it’s clear that the domain name owner is a cybersquatter, and the complainant should win. But other times it is the opposite — the domain name owner is innocent of any wrongdoing and what’s going on is that a covetous party wishes they could wrest the domain name away from its owner. This blog article describes such a case, with an outcome that I find particularly gratifying.
For the next week, an extra hour available for WIPO filings
Experienced filers in the Patent Cooperation Treaty, Madrid Protocol, and Hague Agreement systems (utility patents, trademarks, and industrial designs) know that it is important to keep always in mind when midnight will arrive in Geneva, where WIPO is located.
For a PCT filer, this matters because to get a same-day filing date, a PCT application being filed in RO/IB will need to be filed by 4 PM Mountain Time. The same is true for filing an Article 19 amendment. The same is true if you are using ePCT to file a Demand and Article 34 amendment.
For a Madrid filer, this matters among other things for the payment of decade renewal fees.
For a Hague filer, this matters for the the filing of an international design application at the IB.
The point of today’s post is that starting today, and for the next week, you get an extra hour to get a same-day filing date. The reason is that Europe and the US carry out their daylight saving time transitions on different days that are a week apart.
This means that you could file as late as 5 PM Mountain Time (instead of the usual 4 PM) and still get a same-day filing date.
Things will return to normal a week from now, on November 6, 2016.
Picking a new trademark
The other day one of our valued employees at our firm happened to ask me how we picked the name of our publishing arm, Penaya Publishing. In response, I launched into a discussion of the factors that we urge clients to consider when picking a new name for a company or product or service, and the result was that I felt yet another blog article coming on. Here it is, a discussion of factors that we urge a client to consider when picking a new name for a company or product or service. I hope readers will post their comments and suggestions below. Continue reading “Picking a new trademark”
Picking when to hand in a specimen of use?
I will offer a few thoughts on how a trademark practitioner might pick when (during the prosecution of an ITU trademark application) to hand in the specimen of use. (I will assume the simple case in which a trademark application contains just one trademark class. In such a trademark application, there is generally a need only to hand in one specimen of use.)
The idea of an ITU application is that the applicant is not claiming to have actually used the mark in interstate commerce, but is merely professing to have a bona fide intention to use the mark in commerce at some time in the future.
Continue reading “Picking when to hand in a specimen of use?”
Brunei joins Madrid Protocol
Brunei has joined Madrid Protocol.
Brunei deposited its instrument of accession today, October 6, 2016.
The Protocol will enter into force for the purposes of Brunei on January 6, 2017.
This brings the number of members of the Madrid system to 98.
The two-letter code for Brunei is BN.
Cancellation petition filed against “Make America Great Again”
Readers will recall (see blog articles here and here and here) that in 2015, Donald Trump filed a number of trademark applications for “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN”. Two are now registered and the other two have Noti
ces of Allowance.
Someone has now filed a cancellation petition seeking to cancel one of the registrations (quoted at right).
The Answer is due November 7, 2016, which I note is a day before election day.