Monday, December 26 will be a federal holiday in the District of Columbia. This means the USPTO will be closed on Monday, December 26. This means that any response or action that would have been due at the USPTO on Saturday, December 24, or Sunday, December 25, or Monday, December 26 will be timely if carried out on Tuesday, December 27.
The US Postal Service will likewise be closed on Monday, December 26.
Yes, folks, today is the day. Starting today, you only get three months to respond to a USPTO trademark Office Action instead of the usual six months. I told you all about this back on October 12, 2022 (blog article). This article hopefully answers some of your questions about this change. Continue reading “Today is the day — only 3 months to respond to a trademark Office Action”
Keep in mind that most locations in the US will turn off daylight saving time today (November 6, 2022), 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.
In my blog article of October 12, 2022, I discussed the imminent shortened three-month response periods that will face trademark applicants starting on December 1, 2022. Toward the end of the article I described what I saw as two “gotchas”, namely ways that an applicant could end up with an abandoned trademark application if the applicant were to choose to try to tough it out and hold back from paying the $125 extension-of-time fee. Alert reader Michael Brown points out that depending upon the level of kind-heartedness in your Examining Attorney, you might not end up running afoul of the “gotchas”. Continue reading “Exploring the “gotchas” in the imminent shortened three-month trademark response period”
Keep in mind that Switzerland will turn off daylight saving time today, October 30, 2022. 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.
For US filers, keep in mind that the US will not turn off DST today. The US will turn off DST a week from now, on November 6, 2022.
US filers who are getting ready to file a document at the IB should thus pay close attention during this next week to what time it is in Switzerland.
Most readers of my blog will appreciate that the correct terminology is not “Daylight Savings Time” but “Daylight Saving Time”.
The practical effect for most US filers is that for the next week, you get an extra hour to e-file. For example if you are in the Mountain Time Zone, normally you rush to file by 4PM if need a same-day filing date at the IB. But for the next week you can file as late as 5PM and you will still get a same-day filing date at the IB.
Yes, folks, Saturday, December 3, 2022 will be the day. Starting December 3, you will only get three months to respond to a USPTO trademark Office Action instead of the usual six months. This article hopefully answers some of your questions about this change. Continue reading “December 3 will be the day — three months for trademark responses to Office actions”
(Update: The oral argument took place on December 7, 2023 and you can see the transcript here.)
(Update: the appellee’s brief has been filed – blog article.)
(Update: the appellant’s reply brief has been filed – blog article.)
Readers will recall that a few days ago I wrote:
This would be a perfect time for amici to file amicus briefs.
An amicus brief has now been filed in the case about the Trademark Office demanding to know where the trademark applicant sleeps at night (blog article). You can see the amicus brief here.
(update: an amicus brief has been filed.)
(update: the appellee’s brief has been filed.)
(update: the appellant’s reply brief has been filed.)
Many readers are aware of the keen obsession that the Trademark Office at the USPTO has in knowing where trademark applicants sleep at night. Readers who are familiar with the statutes and rules and accumulated court cases relating to the right and wrong ways to do “rulemaking” may also have gone to the trouble of looking at the steps that the Trademark Office followed in promulgating its rules that, since a couple of years ago, have required applicants to reveal to the Trademark Office where they sleep at night. But perhaps not so many readers are aware that right now there is pending in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit a case that asks the Court to consider striking down those rules.
There is now an important development in that Court of Appeals case. Continue reading “The “where you sleep at night” Federal Circuit appeal – first brief”
If you regularly make use of TEAS or PAIR or Patentcenter or EFS-Web, you probably find yourself checking the USPTO Systems Status and Availability web page (screen shot at right) from time to time.
Wouldn’t it be nice if somehow you could be notified automatically when that web page changes? Well, now you can be notified automatically, if you choose to participate in a beta test of my new change-detection system. Continue reading “How often do you check the Systems Status page?”
Yes, you heard it here first (blog article). On August 5, 2022, I was the first to tell you this very exciting news about the Polish patent office becoming trendy, modern, and up-to-date. Continue reading “Today is the day for the Polish patent office”
