Trademark Public Advisory Committee (“TPAC”) held a public meeting via telephone yesterday (Jan. 20, 2011), and I listened in. Other than the participation of three new members recently appointed and sworn in the committee, there was little news.
Congratulations to the three new members on the appointment!
- Maury Tepper – Attorney at Tepper & Eyster, PLLC (bio here)
- Ann Chasser (former Commissions for Trademarks and President of INTA) – University of Cincinnati Associate Vice President for Technology Transfer and Commercialization (webpage here, LinkedIn bio here)
- Deborah Hampton – Limited Brands Inc. Intellectual Property Manager (LinkedIn bio here)
In other news from the conference call, the TTAB hopes to release the updated TTAB Manual of Procedure (TBMP) to the public in March – it is currently been converted from Word to XML and proofed. It was also reported that in FY2011 Q1cases going to a final decision by the TTAB took an average of 172 weeks, which is down from the previous Quarter.
TPAC noted that it was aware of the TESS search system problems this week, and it is monitoring the USPTO’s response to the situation, and also noted that the USPTO request for comments on “Trademark Litigation Tactics” has been extended until February 7, 2011.
The next public TPAC phone conference will be February 3, 2011. The next public TPAC meeting at the USPTO is scheduled for February 11, 2011. For a schedule of future TPAC meetings, see USPTO site here.
