Many readers of this blog are frequent users of the Madrid Protocol system. Some probably qualify as “power users” of the Madrid Protocol system. What some might not be aware of, however, is that WIPO provides what is called its Guide to the Madrid System. You can see the book’s front cover at right. This is a 260-page book, and the big news is that this book just got re-released today in its 2022 version. Continue reading “Just released — a new version of “Guide to the Madrid System””
Nice people at WIPO received our poster
It will be recalled that the Tenth e-Trademarks Listserv Reception took place on Tuesday, May 3, 2022 (blog article with pix) and that we knew ahead of time that some nice people from WIPO (from the Madrid Protocol part of WIPO) were planning to attend.
Never wanting to miss a chance to pass along “asks” to an intellectual property office, the members of the listserv collected a bunch of “asks”. We prepared a big poster listing the “asks” and we put it on an easel so that people attending the listserv could review the “asks” and could sign the poster if they were comfortable doing so. You can read about the poster and you can see a big photo of it, and a list of the “asks”, here. At the end of the evening, we pulled the poster off from its corrugated cardboard backing and we folded it up and stuck it in an envelope and mailed it to the nice WIPO people.
I am delighted to report that today an email message came in from David Muls (photo at right), who is one of the high-up people at WIPO in charge of Madrid Protocol. It is he who received the postal service envelope at WIPO headquarters, with the folded-up signed poster inside. He sent us an email saying:
The poster was well received!!!!! š We are impressed by the many signatures!!!
He provided a photo of the unfolded poster as it arrived in Geneva, and you can see it here at right. (I think in this particular photo he was mostly trying to capture the “asks” but I think all of the signatures came through as well on the physical poster.)
By the way I find myself from time to time writing phrases such as “nice people at WIPO” and I keep wondering if maybe that is actually redundancy in such a phrase. Or inherency or something.
Higher voltage? Lower current?
The first car I owned was a 1966 VW bug. It cost me $750. When I bought that car in 1977, I was the king of the world. I was independent. I could drive around wherever and whenever I wanted. Now as I look back in 2022, this reminds me of the the current-versus-voltage tradeoff that has permeated everything in our lives ever since. Continue reading “Higher voltage? Lower current?”
Second round of electronic US trademark registration certificates gets issued
(Corrected with two corrections prompted by alert reader Ken Boone. The starting number was 6741505, not 6741504. Thus the count of issued registrations was 7477, not 7478. Thank you, Ken.)
Today, May 31, 2022, a second round of US trademarks got registered under the new “electronic certificate” program.
The lowest US trademark registration number handed out today was 6741505. The highest US trademark registration number handed out today was 6748981. So it looks like the Trademark Office issued 7477 US trademark registrations today. That number is roughly consistent with the numbers from a few weeks ago, before the big SNAFU on May 10, 2022.
The electronic registration certificates all seem to be present in TSDR right now at 5:41 AM Eastern Time.
The certificate for the lowest registration number got cryptographically signed on May 20, 2022 at 4:32 AM. The certificate for the highest registration number got cryptographically signed on May 27, 2022 at 8:02 AM.
Magnetic camber gauges
Now and again, usually completely by accident, I learn of some very clever and inexpensive device that solves some problem that previously could only be addressed in some complicated way. The magnetic camber gauge, seen at right, is such a device. Continue reading “Magnetic camber gauges”
Please consider signing this letter about DOCX
(Update: The letter has been sent. See here.)
Hello readers. If one of the things that you do for a living is filing patent applications at the USPTO, then I urge you to take a look at two documents:
- a Federal Register notice dated April 28, 2022 entitled Filing Patent Applications in DOCX Format (87 FR 25226), and
- a letter to the USPTO, that is waiting for your signature, explaining what is wrong with that Federal Register notice.
Please consider signing the letter.
Thank you.
Carl
One hundred eleven trademark applicants and practitioners ask Commissioner Gooder to stop demanding to know where trademark applicants sleep at night
(Updated with the US Postal Service delivery.)
Yes, the title says it all. One hundred eleven trademark applicants and practitioners have signed a letter asking Commissioner for Trademarks David S. Gooder to stop demanding to know where trademark applicants sleep at night. You can see the letter here. A courtesy copy of the letter has been emailed to Commissioner Gooder today. The US Postal Service delivered the physical letter on May 31, 2022 at 7:31 AM as you can see here.
More on the letter from Forty-Eight Design Applicants and Practitioners to Director Karen Young
Hello dear readers. It will be recalled that on October 12, 2021, forty-eight design applicants and practitioners signed and sent a letter to Karen Young, Director of Technology Center 2900. (This is the Technology Center that examines design patent applications.) The letter (click here to see it) has four āasksā relating to the the examination of US design patent applications.
Yesterday, the phone rang and it was Director Young! Continue reading “More on the letter from Forty-Eight Design Applicants and Practitioners to Director Karen Young”
Please consider signing a letter to Commissioner for Trademarks about “where you sleep at night”
(Update: the letter has been sent. See blog article.)
Hello, dear readers. This is urgent.
Yesterday, the Trademark Office published 20837 supposedly private email addresses of trademark applicants, even though two years ago it promised the Trademark Public Advisory Committee it would protect those email addresses from public view (blog article).
If the Trademark Office is going to slip up and reveal twenty thousand supposedly private applicant email addresses, then it is only a matter of time before the Trademark Office slips up and reveals a hundred thousand addresses where trademark applicants sleep at night.
And a few of them will be people who absolutely did not want the world to know where they sleep at night, and for very good reasons, and it will be the kind of thing that we will all feel sick to our stomachs about. That’s if we don’t do something about it.
So here it is, a letter for review and possible signature. I want it to land on Commissioner Gooder’s desk right away, while he is still stinging from the realization yesterday that his office published the twenty thousand supposedly private email addresses. I have in mind closing this letter for signature two days from now (Friday) at close of business. So let’s not put this off. Let’s review the letter today and if you are going to sign it, please sign it today. And if you know of somebody else that you think ought to know about this letter, please bring this to their attention today.
To see the letter, and for possible signature, click here.
Trademark Office breaks its promise to keep applicant email address secret
Today, May 24, 2022, the Commissioner for Trademarks published my client’s secret email address to the world. It is not easy to find polite language to describe how I am feeling right now. This is a part of the Trademark Office’s ham-fisted migration from paper registration certificates to electronic registration certificates. I am very disappointed. Continue reading “Trademark Office breaks its promise to keep applicant email address secret”