As I reported in an earlier blog article, Trademark Center is broken for trademark applications in which the mark is a logo. USPTO is failing to handle this failure well.
The USPTO has known about this failure in its Trademark Center system for at least three days now. But even now, USPTO’s System status and availability web page fails to admit the failure.
USPTO’s web site says that the way to find out whether you can use some alternative means of filing is by telephoning the Trademark Assistance Center. I tried this. I had to listen to music-on-hold for 54 minutes before reaching a human being. The person who answered gave me a trouble ticket number and then said that if I have a “signature problem” my only choice is to send an email message to teas@uspto.gov. I explained that I had already done this and had heard nothing back from teas@uspto.gov. It was clear that she wanted to hang up the call. She will supposedly have a “team lead” give me a call about this. More than an hour has passed with no return call from the “team lead”.
What should have happened is, the moment that the robot attendant picked up my call, it should have played an event-specific recorded message about the known “signature problem”. This might have saved me having to waste 54 minutes of professional time listening to music-on-hold to hear the same thing.
What should have happened is, the USPTO should have fessed up to this outage on its System status and availability web page. This might likewise have saved me having to waste 54 minutes of professional time listening to music-on-hold to hear the same thing.
We don’t have a Commissioner for Trademarks just now, but we do have an “Acting Commissioner for Trademarks”, a Dan Vavonese whose phone number is 571-272-8901. I called that number. A representative answered, and he said that I should talk to the Trademark Copy Fulfilment Branch at 571-272-3150. I did so, and it was no surprise that the person who answered that number said there was no way that she or anybody in her department could help.
I then pushed “redial” on the call to the Acting Commissioner, reaching the same representative. I let him know that his idea of asking the Trademark Copy Fulfilment Branch to assist with this failure in Trademark Center did not work. He also explained that the Acting Commissioner is not in the office today. He will supposedly get me a return phone call from a different person who can speak for the Acting Commissioner. I am waiting by the phone for that call.
My situation is that about seventeen hours ago, I prepared eight trademark applications for a client in Europe, and sent the “review and sign” links to the client. About seven hours ago, at the start of the work day in Europe, I heard back from the client that five of the “review and sign” links don’t work. Of course what the trademark practitioner community has figured out is that the links that don’t work are for “logo” applications as distinguished from “standard character” applications. I immediately reported this problem to teas@uspto.gov. (Unfortunately even now after seven hours, I have heard nothing back from teas@uspto.gov.)
Each of my client’s US trademark applications claims priority from a corresponding European priority application that was filed almost six months ago. The alert reader will thus appreciate that it is important to get these US trademark applications reviewed and signed without further delay.
Is it normal USPTO incompentence or is it DOGE?
In which case it is just beginning.
Bad DOGE.
Well, they were incompetent way before DOGE so we cannot blame that one on DOGE.
I am not surprised. If there is one thing the USPTO excels at is INCOMPETENCE. They also excel at passing the buck and kicking the can down the road.
I cannot even file without the added step of the review and sign. I cannot get past the review page. it does not show an error, I have gone over every item multiple times. When I click Continue I get a message in a pop up box, saying “You must complete all required fields and correct any detected errors. Select “edit” to make changes or return to the section in the application using the left side navigation.” But there are no “detected errors” that I can see.
I have not experienced that problem (or did they fix the issue?), or maybe it’s because my attorney does not like to 1) sign any form on behalf of clients and 2) prefers the clients to hand sign the forms so I always send the clients the declarations for signature and then I upload the signed declarations (pdf). In any case, I have prepared all kinds of trademark applications (word, design, combined, etc.) up until I download the declaration signature page to send to clients to sign without any problems. I rarely send links for clients to sign the declarations directly, so I am not sure if that makes any difference.
The one thing I really hate about the new TM Center application requirements is having to use the USPTO’s ID Manual for the descriptions of goods/services, which can be lengthy sometimes. We encourage clients to be concise and precise in their list of goods/services to avoid paying the free form surcharge. However, I am afraid no matter which we choose, free text or ID Manual, this new rule substantially increases the cost for the clients, and if the list of goods/services is extensive there is no choice but to use the free form.
When in doubt it may be best to lump everything in one class and let the examiner select the classes/descriptions although we’d have to pay the penalty fee for not providing all the information, and for using the free form.
I don’t care what excuse the USPTO gives for all these additional (patent and trademark) fees. It’s just more ways to extract money from our wallets. Although we must admit that there are more than a few filers (domestic and foreign) who have abused the system.