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Past April Fool’s Day articles

Here are some of my past April Fool’s Day blog articles:

As for the second article (USPTO relocates its “contingency” EFS-Web server) what is particularly sad is that it should not have been an April Fool’s article at all.  As many have pointed out over the course of many years, there is an ongoing need for USPTO to relocate its contigency patent e-filing server to a geographic location distant from the main e-filing server.  There have been many system outages at the USPTO over the years in which both the main server and the “contingency” server were both out of service.  It is just common sense that the two servers should not be in the same building, connected to the Internet through the same single connection point, powered by the same source of electrical power.

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Thirteen seats left for AIPLA Trademark Roundtable in Denver

It will be recalled that AIPLA is hosting a free-of-charge trademark roundtable at the Denver patent office.  Two very important people from the Trademark Office will be there — Meryl Hershkowitz, the Deputy Commissioner for Trademark Operations, and Wendy Cohen, Interlocutory Attorney for the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.  This is a rare and unique opportunity to talk face-to-face with Trademark Office people about issues that are important to you as a trademark applicant or practitioner.

Only thirteen seats remain open for this roundtable.  If you want to attend, now is the time to register.  You can see the event page here on the USPTO web site.

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Time of day returns to normal for US filers filing at the International Bureau

Readers will recall my blog post of two weeks ago in which I described that an American filer would (for a limited time of two weeks) have an extra hour during which to file a same-day filing at the IB.  Well, now it’s back to normal.  Now the drop-dead time for e-filing (or fax filing) is the usual 4PM (Mountain Time).

So for your PCT filing at the RO/IB, or your direct filing of a Hague Agreement design application, or your payment of a renewal for a Madrid Protocol international trademark registration, or an Article 19 amendment, or a PCT Demand … it’s back to normal.