TTABlog Hears Growing Groundswell of Non-Support for Proposed TTAB Rule Changes

The TTABlog has heard rumblings of discontent over the TTAB's proposed rule changes. We can expect the major IP organizations to weigh in on the issue soon, and it may not be pretty.


Former TTAB Judge David Kera offers his Comments at the new TTAB-Rules blog created by the Oblon, Spivak firm in Alexandria, Virginia. Practitioners may post their own comments at the Oblon, Spivak blog, whose purpose is described in the firm's announcement:

Dear Colleagues:

Welcome to the Oblon, Spivak TTAB-Rules Blog.

We have created this blog to serve as a resource for practitioners who practice before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. The rules package published on January 17, 2006 is quite extensive, some 12 pages in length, and comments to the proposed rules must be filed with the USPTO by March 20, 2006.

The proposed rules are likely to have a serious and negative impact on the ability of trademark owners to solve trademark issues before the Board in a cost-effective manner. We are concerned that the new rules will encourage more trademark owners to resort to the federal courts, as the procedures at the Board will become far more cumbersome, with increased costs to the parties.

We believe that further time is needed to carefully evaluate the impact of the new rules, and former TTAB Judge David Kera appeared before the Trademark Public Advisory Committee (TPAC) earlier this week and encouraged the PTO to extend the public comment period, and to hold hearings on the proposed rules. The PTO has not yet decided whether to extend the deadline, or whether to hold public hearings, and we encourage you to request that the Board do so.

Comments can be submitted by e-mail to AB56Comments@uspto.gov or by mail to the address listed in the Federal Register notice.

It is our hope that this blog can serve as a mechanism for the exchange of views on the proposed rules. Please share with other readers your views and/or post your submission to the PTO. You may wish to subscribe to this blog via an RSS reader to keep current on postings to the blog. Please feel free to e-mail us at: ttab-rules@oblon.com

Sincerely,

Oblon, Spivak
1-703-413-3000

I hope Leo Stoller takes some time out from his filing of extension requests to give us his views. [He's filed 72 in the last three days, so maybe not].

Text Copyright John L. Welch 2006.