Last Friday I attended the quarterly public meeting of the USPTO’s Trademark Public Advisory Committee.The following is summary of the key items discussed.
Legislative Update (by Dana Colarulli)
- With the new Congress, there has been lots of hill activity
- TPAC was included in the recent AIA technical corrections legislation – the change gives TPAC more flexibility in appointment terms
- Expecting the USPTO to testify in April in oversight hearing
Trademark Operations Update (by Commissioner Deborah Cohn)
- The percentage of “Excellent Office Actions” continues to be at an excellent level
- Trademark Operations received a “gold medal” from the Department of Commerce recently for the “Excellent Office Program” for providing a better customer experience
- 78% of applications are handled entirely electronically
- Comments on filing fee changes are being reviewed and a proposal will be forthcoming
- Filing increase in FY2013 thus far is on par with expectations
- 30 new Examining Attorneys were hired recently; 16 just began working and 14 more will begin in a few weeks
- Examination pendency is on target
- Comments received regarding possible shortening of Section 8 timing were largely negative; the possibility is on hold for now, pending results and data from the Section 8 specimen 2 year pilot that is underway
- TSDR is going to be enhanced today (ed. note: not sure if enhancements are live yet)
- TEAS was upgraded and enhanced recently
- A few ID manual changes are upcoming, including a way to check in TEAS applications whether the IDs are in the approved manual
- USPTO has reached out to stakeholder groups to get input on several complicated industry specific ID areas
- USPTO has held roundtables in multiple cities recently with INTA member groups
- WIPO Global Brands Database was recently launched; includes USPTO searches
- TMEP updates: next one will be in April
- Official Gazette no longer distributed in print; enhanced electronic OG will be testing soon and hopefully completed by the end of the fiscal year; USPTO sought input from user groups
OCIO Update (Marcie Levett (filling in for John Owens) / Raj Dolas (project director TMNG)
- Added capability for new application serial numbers beginning with ’86’
- Many ‘Trademarks Next Generation’ (TMNG) projects ongoing
International and Policy Update (Sharon Marsh)
- Post-registration specimen pilot project underway; about 450 (out of 500) office actions have been sent so far; registrants have 6 months to respond
- Hopefully will have some data to report by end of the year
- Four countries have recently become members of Madrid Protocol; USPTO has worked with them to provide assistance
CFO Update (Tony Scardino)
- AIA technical collections act confirmed that there is a “Trademark Fence” – a statutory prohibition on spending Trademark related revenues on non-Trademark operation
- Revenue is slightly below estimate, spending is slightly above expected; TM operating reserve of $126 million, and is fully sufficient to cover it
- current continuing resolution for budget ends March 27th
- FY2014 budget plans and process are under way
TTAB Update (Chief Judge Gerard Rogers)
- Recent staffing increases: 4 new judges, 3 new staff attorneys, a lead paralegal
- TTAB webpage just updated, now includes section with “Stakeholder Outreach” information and links
- Continuing efforts to enhance and improve the ‘TTAB Dashboard’; working to collect more information going forward
- Number of cases operating under the old rules is down to about 150
- Filings of new proceedings at the TTAB are mostly up slightly
Next meeting – Tuesday, July 9th, 2013
