Coming Soon: E-Mail with Direct Link to Issued Trademark Office Actions and Appeal Briefs to Replace E-Mailed Office Actions/Appeal Briefs (27Apr2007)
Posted by Kristen Cichocki at April 27, 2007 01:08 PM
Coming Soon: E-Mail with Direct Link to Issued Trademark Office Actions and Appeal Briefs to Replace E-Mailed Office Actions/Appeal Briefs (27Apr2007)
On or about May 26, 2007 , the USPTO will notify applicants who have authorized e-mail communication with the USPTO of each issued Trademark Office action or Examining Attorney's Appeal Brief by an e-mail message containing a direct link to the Office action or Appeal Brief in Trademark Document Retrieval (TDR) (http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal/tow). The USPTO will not send a separate e-mail with the Office action or Appeal Brief attached.
This new approach should benefit both applicants and the USPTO. For example, discontinuing the sending of an e-mail with the Office action/Appeal Brief attached will eliminate problems stemming from very large e-mails, when, for example, the Office action includes voluminous evidence. Currently, such situations require dividing the Office action and its evidentiary attachments into multiple e-mails to ensure delivery, which, in turn, necessitates opening different e-mails and files. TDR will provide direct access to the complete Office action/Appeal Brief and all attachments, either for direct viewing or downloading. Also, TDR gives easy access to all other information in the application file. TDR is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
Electronic Exchange of Priority Documents [signed 23 April 2007]
Posted by Kristen Cichocki at April 25, 2007 09:55 AM
Electronic Exchange of Priority Documents [signed 23 April 2007]
View and/or download a PDF of this notice at the following url:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/dapp/opla/preognotice/eepd.pdf
Correspondence With the Madrid Processing Unit of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (16Apr2007)
Posted by Kristen Cichocki at April 16, 2007 08:11 PM
Correspondence With the Madrid Processing Unit of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (16Apr2007)
View and/or download a PDF of this notice at the following url:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/sol/notices/72fr18907.pdf
New York Regional Independent Inventors Conference to be Held May 12 and 13 (13APR2007)
Posted by Kristen Cichocki at April 14, 2007 03:24 PM
New York Regional Independent Inventors Conference to be Held May 12 and 13
Top officials from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, successful inventors and entrepreneurs will headline the agency's New York Regional Independent Inventors Conference. The event will be held May 12-13 at the New York Academy of Sciences in New York City.
Registration is now open for this two-day event. The registration fee of $100 per person includes all sessions and presentations, morning and afternoon refreshments and lunch for both days.
For additional information about this event, call the Inventors Assistance Program at 571-272-8850.
To register by phone call the National Inventors Hall of Fame at 330-849-6903. To register on-line go to: http://www.invent.org/iic/
The USPTO.GOV website and all USPTO E-Business systems will be inaccessible between 10 PM and 12 Midnight ET on Saturday, 14 April 2007.
Posted by Kristen Cichocki at April 11, 2007 07:56 PM
The following notice was posted on the USPTO.GOV website on April 11, 2007:
The USPTO.GOV website and all USPTO E-Business systems will be inaccessible between 10 PM and 12 Midnight ET on Saturday, 14 April 2007.
USPTO Launches National Campaign to Inspire Young Inventors (10APR2007)
USPTO Launches National Campaign to Inspire Young Inventors (10APR2007)
The United States Patent and Trademark Office, together with the Advertising Council and the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation (NIHFF), today launched a national, multimedia public service advertising (PSA) campaign to engage a new generation of children in innovation. The campaign seeks to make inventing and developing new ideas part of American children's lives. The PSAs, which can be viewed online, are being distributed to 28,000 media stations nationwide this week. All of the new PSAs will air and run in advertising time and space donated by the media. The spots direct viewers to a website that has been created for the campaign, InventNow.org.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez unveiled the Inspiring Invention campaign at the National Press Club. "In an innovation-driven economy, the key to our future success and competitiveness lies in making sure we are sharing America's culture of innovation with our young people," said Gutierrez. "In doing so, we will prepare them to compete more effectively in the global marketplace and ensure that the United States maintains our global economic leadership."
USPTO's Under Secretary Jon Dudas was also on hand to unveil the campaign. "We see the Inspiring Invention campaign as a wonderful opportunity to show kids how fun and rewarding it can be to create. We hope that children who watch these ads will want to become more inventive; explore math, science, and other creative fields; and then share their new ideas -- to continue America's legacy of innovation."
For generations, the United States has been a recognized global leader in technology and innovation. While the country represents only 5 percent of the world's population, it accounts for nearly one-third of the world's science and engineering researchers and 40 percent of all research and development, according to the Council on Competitiveness However, with increased economic competition globally, it's widely recognized that the United States must take steps now to maintain its leadership. In particular, America must ensure we inspire future generations of innovators.
The new campaign, created in conjunction with ad agency Publicis & Hal Riney in San Francisco, aims to inspire children (specifically the "tweens," ages 8 to 11) to recognize how their imaginations can lead to the technological advances of the future. The campaign communicates that there is a role for every kind of unique curiosity and imaginative idea as it relates to invention. Ultimately, the goal is to motivate children to pursue inventing and innovating as part of their educations and, later, in their careers.
Developed with extensive research with inventors and children, the campaign includes new television, radio, outdoor and Web advertising that feature ordinary children creating inventions to solve everyday problems. The PSAs communicate to children that "anything is possible" and encourage them to "keep thinking." The ads direct audiences to visit a new comprehensive website, www.InventNow.org, to explore and discover their own innate inventiveness and curiosity. Designed by VPI (Visual Perspectives Internet), the site features interactive games and allows children to explore their inventive interests in space, sports, design and entertainment.
"Research conducted for our new campaign found that children are naturally curious and inventive, but they do not realize the impact of their creativity," according to Peggy Conlon, President & CEO of the Ad Council. "We are proud to join with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and The National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation on this wonderful effort to help children see that there are no limits to their creativity and imagination and that they can have a role in the technological advances of our future if they just 'keep thinking."
The "Inspiring Invention" campaign is one of several educational initiatives in which The National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation and the United States Patent and Trademark Office partner to encourage children to think inventively. Among these initiatives are the National Inventors Hall of Fame's Camp Invention and Club Invention programs, which are supported by the USPTO. Camp Invention, now in its 17th year, is a summer day camp that fosters creativity and inventive thinking skills that allow children to learn through hands-on activities, subject immersion, and discovery. In 2007, more than 60,000 students will attend Camp Invention in 47 states. Club Invention is an after-school program directed by the Hall of Fame that extends scientific inquiry-based education to after-school sites
National Inventors Hall of Fame Inductee and inventor of the modern microphone Dr. James West said, "This campaign relates directly to our mission of inspiring invention and creativity. It's a prime opportunity for us to capture the attention of children and share with them the wonders of science and technology, inspiring them enough to become involved in life-long endeavors in these fields. Our future, and theirs, will be much richer because of it."
Nanotechnology Customer Partnership Meeting May 3, 2007 (09APR2007)
Posted by Kristen Cichocki at April 10, 2007 09:18 AM
Nanotechnology Customer Partnership Meeting May 3, 2007
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Alexandria, Virginia 22313
South Auditorium, Madison Building
This Nanotechnology Customer Partnership initiative is designed and developed to be a forum to share ideas, experiences, and insights between individual users and the USPTO. The USPTO does not intend to use these customer partnership groups to arrive at a group consensus. Individual opinions are sought from varying participants, and the meetings are intended to be informal in nature. These customer partnership groups are formed with full recognition of the USPTO's responsibility under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), and are not established as FACA compliant committees.
We value our customers and the feedback provided from individual participants is important in our efforts to continuously improve the quality of our products and services. Your willing participation in this informal process is helpful in providing us with new insights and perspectives.
DATE AND LOCATION : This meeting is scheduled for Thursday, May 3, 2007, from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm, in the South Auditorium, Madison Building, Concourse Level, located at 600 Dulany Street, in Alexandria, Virginia.
Requests for Attendance at the Partnership Meeting
Due to space limitations, please RSVP by e-mail to jill.warden@uspto.gov or by telephone to Jill Warden at (571) 272-1267 to confirm your attendance. If it becomes necessary to restrict the number of attendees, we will do so on a first come-first served basis.
Under Secretary Dudas Addresses U.S. Chamber Intellectual Property Summit in Beijing and Also Meets with Heads of Chinese IP Offices(09APR2007)
Posted by Kristen Cichocki at April 9, 2007 01:58 PM
Under Secretary Dudas Addresses U.S. Chamber Intellectual Property Summit in Beijing and
Also Meets with Heads of Chinese IP Offices(09APR2007)
Meetings further deepen U.S. cooperation with Chinese IP Offices and speech outlines what governments are doing to address exponential worldwide growth in patent applications and intellectual property theft
The U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property (IP) and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Jon Dudas recently spoke at the Global Forum on Intellectual Property Rights Protection and Innovation in Beijing where he stressed the need for strong intellectual property protection and enforcement to foster innovation and wealth creation. The meeting in late March was hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and China’s Council for the Promotion of International Trade.
This was Mr. Dudas’ seventh trip to China to work on IP issues. He used the opportunity to meet with representatives of Chinese IP-related agencies to further bilateral cooperation on finding solutions to IP protection and enforcement challenges. Mr. Dudas met with Commissioner Tian Lipu of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), China's Patent Office for their second heads-of-offices meeting. The USPTO and SIPO have witnessed dramatic growth in patent application filings, and last year, the two agencies signed a work plan of strategic cooperation intended to reduce the workloads of both agencies and to further cooperation. Under the work plan, the USPTO has implemented an examiner exchange program and initiated an automation expert group meeting, as well as providing training to SIPO examiners and managers on biotechnology patent examination, examiner training and certification, and quality assurance. Cooperative programs planned for the future include training of SIPO examiners at the USPTO Patent Academy, a workshop on traditional knowledge, genetic resources, and folklore, and an IP enforcement program.
The USPTO is pursuing similar agreements for future office-to-office exchanges with China’s Trademark and Copyright Offices. While in China, Mr. Dudas met with Vice Minister Li Dongsheng of State Administration for Industry and Commerce to discuss trademark protection and enforcement. The two countries tentatively agreed to a number of joint programs on trademarks in 2007, including a May roundtable on the filing of abusive trademark applications, a June workshop on geographical indications, and trademark examination training at the USTPO in September.
Mr. Dudas and Vice Minister Liu Binjie of China’s General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) agreed to enhance institutional cooperation on copyrights by signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to be finalized in the next few months. Under the MOU, USPTO and GAPP will work together to exchange information on copyright matters, to exchange technical assistance, and work jointly to combat piracy. Mr. Dudas also secured agreement from GAPP to help resolve jurisdictional disputes that have hindered textbook piracy enforcement.
In addition, Mr. Dudas met with China’s Supreme People’s Court and State Council’s Legislative Affairs Office to discuss China’s judicial IP enforcement and pending amendments to China’s IP laws, as well technical exchanges and cooperation.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez to Unveil New Campaign to Inspire Invention (5April2007)
Posted by Kristen Cichocki at April 6, 2007 12:18 PM
MEDIA ALERT
Contacts:
Jennifer Rankin Byrne, USPTO (571) 272-0422
Rini Paiva, NIHFF, (330) 849-6916
Ellyn Fisher, Ad Council, (212) 984-1964
U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez to Unveil New Campaign to Inspire Invention
April 5, 2007
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez will join the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation and The Advertising Council to unveil a national public service advertising (PSA) campaign designed to engage a new generation of children to make innovation, invention and technological development an integral part of their lives.
| WHO |
• Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez, U.S. Department of Commerce |
| WHEN |
Tuesday, April 10, 9:30 a.m. |
| WHERE |
The National Press Club (Zenger Room) |
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Since 1790, the basic role of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has remained the same: to promote the progress of science and the useful arts by securing for limited times to inventors the exclusive right to their respective discoveries (Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution). Today, the USPTO is a federal agency in the Department of Commerce, headquartered in Alexandria , Virginia . Through the issuance of patents, the USPTO encourages technological advancement by providing incentives to invent, invest in, and disclose new technology worldwide. Through the registration of trademarks, the agency assists businesses in protecting their investments, promoting goods and services, and safeguarding consumers against confusion and deception in the marketplace. By disseminating both patent and trademark information, the USPTO promotes an understanding of intellectual property protection and facilitates the development and sharing of new technologies worldwide.
National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation
The not-for-profit National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation is the premier organization in America dedicated to honoring and fostering creativity and invention. Each year a new class of inventors is inducted into the Hall of Fame in recognition of their patented inventions that make human, social, and economic progress possible. Founded in 1973 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the National Council of Intellectual Property Law Association, the Hall's permanent home is Akron, Ohio, where the inventors in the Hall are honored and from where it administers its national programs, including Camp Invention ® , Club Invention ® , and the Collegiate Inventors Competition ® . For more information, visit www.invent.org .
Ad Council
The Ad Council is a private, non-profit organization with a rich history of marshalling volunteer talent from the advertising and media industries to deliver critical messages to the American public. Having produced literally thousands of PSA campaigns addressing the most pressing social issues of the day, the Ad Council has effected, and continues to effect, tremendous positive change by raising awareness, inspiring action, and saving lives. For more information, please visit www.adcouncil.org .
J. Matthew Buchanan 
Stephen M. Nipper 
Douglas Sorocco 