Two weeks ago I attended a roundtable “table topic” at the INTA conference featuring two staff attorneys from the USPTO. The session was full of valuable information:
– 92% of USPTO Examining Attorney work from home part or full time
– Examining Attorney’s live in 28 states and Washington, DC
– New trademark application filings through 3/31/2012 are up almost 7% over the same period in FY2011
– 75% of all applications are handled entirely electronically without any exchange of paper between the applicant and the USPTO
– Up to 10 related applications (filed by the same application over a short time frame) can be assigned automatically to the same Examining Attorney
– Examining Attorneys will all have video conferencing capabilities on their new computer systems, the roll out of which should be completed in the next few weeks
– Full time Examining Attorneys are required to perform their work between the hours of 5:30am and 10pm EST, and can work their 80 hours per pay period any way they want within those times
– Approximately 20-25% of applications are filed by “pro se” applicants without an attorney
– The 2012 National Trademark Expo will be held October 19th and 20th at the USPTO’s headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia
– The USPTO has begun exploring the development of mobile / smart phone applications
