11th Annual ABA-IPL Trademark Days with the USPTO

Title: 11th Annual ABA-IPL Trademark Days with the USPTO

On September 21-22 we participated in the 11^th Annual American Bar Association, Intellectual Property Law Section “Trademark Day” held at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. This annual gathering is an opportunity to meet other trademark practitioners, it’s also an opportunity to meet and interact with USPTO managing attorneys and other USPTO officials. We also participated in a live hearing of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.

One of the highlights of the event was the State of the Trademark Office by David Gooder, Commissioner for Trademarks, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Mr. Gooder highlighted a plan implemented by the USPTO to reduce pendency of new trademarks. Before the pandemic examination time was an average 2.3 months from date of filing to the first office action. However, due to an unusual number of new filings between 2020-2021 period pendency now is 8.5 months from the time of filing. Right now, close to half a million applications are still pending to be examined. The USPTO has increased hiring in 2023 more than 80 new examining attorneys were hired and expected 60 new hires for 2024.

He also introduced several initiatives the USPTO will be implementing in the following months. A revamped trademark filing system, with improved design and navigation tools, and new increased filing fees. The USPTO proposed changes to the government filing fees that will be implemented by the USPTO for filing and renewal of trademarks as of January 2024. The proposed changes will substantially affect the way new applications are filed in the United States. The USPTO is also implementing a new modern search experience with advanced search capabilities.

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