What does it mean for a US trademark registration to be “incontestable”? Continue reading “What is “incontestability”?”
Amending a US application that Is the basis of an IR?
A member of the E-Trademarks listserv asked this:
I have never filed via the Madrid Protocol, but I am considering filing one based on a recently filed US application. If the listing of goods in the US application are amended, are the IR and the subsequent designations automatically amended so that the goods are always the same? It would seem weird to have an IR and national designations with a different listing of goods.
Continue reading “Amending a US application that Is the basis of an IR?”
USPTO still an SSL laggard
In August of 2014 I blogged that USPTO needed to implement SSL (“https://”) on all of its public-facing web sites. I also said that USPTO needed to implement PFS on all of its SSL-enabled web sites. (SSL and PFS are security features that protect visitors from eavesdropping by third parties around the Internet.) In that blog article I explained in detail why this is important. As just one of many examples of why this is important, the way things are now at the USPTO, third parties could eavesdrop and learn what search terms you are using when you search for a patent or a trademark registration.
Ten months have passed. It is now June of 2015 and USPTO has made no progress on this. None. Zip. Every USPTO web site that was vulnerable to this sort of eavesdropping in August of 2014 continues to be vulnerable today in June of 2015.
Now comes a directive from the White House saying the same thing now in June 2015 that I said in August of 2014. The directive tells all federal agencies that “all publicly accessible Federal websites and web services” must “only provide service through a secure connection” meaning https://. All agencies, including the USPTO, are required to get this done by December 31, 2016.
Let’s see how promptly the USPTO complies with this directive from the White House.
I just learned about another IP blog …
It’s been around for some time, but I only learned about it the other day … the Brandaide blog. A blog that is all about creating, building, and protecting your brand.
MTB XI – the photographs
Last night was Meet the Bloggers XI. Yes, the eleventh annual reception. Henry’s Pub, the same restaurant in San Diego where the first and original Meet the Bloggers took place ten years ago, was closed to the public for the night for this special event. 
In this exterior shot of the restaurant you can see maybe half of the people who attended this reception.
In this shot you can see Erik Pelton giving out some of the door prizes.
“out of the office until May 8th”?
Send an email today to a trademark practitioner located anywhere in the world, and likely as not you will receive an automatic reply like this:
Hello. I am out of the office until May 8 with limited access to email. If this matter is urgent please contact my assistant so-and-so …
The reason, of course, is that the email recipient is in San Diego right now. As am I. If you are in San Diego and want to see me this week, the best way to do it is to drop by one of these two receptions.
How Madrid ten-year trademark renewals work
US trademark practitioners are just now starting to get asked by foreign clients to do a ki
nd of filing that never existed before about September of 2014. The filing is a ten-year Statement of Use for a US Madrid registration. This blog article tries to explain such filings and how they are similar to and different from other US trademark maintenance and renewal filings. If you already understand everything about the figure at right, you can skip reading this blog article!
Continue reading “How Madrid ten-year trademark renewals work”
“Walk through time” at the USPTO
There’s a curious temporary display in the atrium at the USPTO. Called “Walk through time”, it is a winding
path with large printed labels on the floor, portraying various events in the history of the USPTO. It starts with the founding of the patent office and proceeds through some sixty or so events to the present. 
My personal favorites are the 1887 event (the US joins the Paris Convention) and the 1970 event (the US joins the Patent Cooperation Treaty).
USPTO corrects its mistake
It’s fascinating to see the USPTO correcting its mistake in a recent acknowledgment of an incontestability claim in a trademark registration.
An excellent blog that you should subscribe to
(See a followup article.)
Law Professor Rebecca Tushnet (Georgetown Law School) has a fascinating blog called Rebecca Tushnet’s 43(B)log with a tagline of “False advertising and more”. If you haven’t subscribed to her blog, you should. One of her blog posts today is No dog in this fight: PTO makes a cancelled mark incontestable. The story told by this posting is by turns amusing, puzzling, and astonishing as one reads about the manner in which the USPTO handled the underlying trademark application and registration.