[Federal Register: October 26, 2010 (Volume 75, Number 206)]
[Notices][Page 65611-65612]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr26oc10-34]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Patent and Trademark Office
Native American Tribal Insignia Database
ACTION: Proposed collection; comment request.
To view the complete text of this comment request, access http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=2010_register&docid=fr26oc10-34
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SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Abstract
The Trademark Law Treaty Implementation Act of 1998 (Pub. L. 105-330, Sec. 302, 112 Stat. 3071) required the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to study issues surrounding the protection of the official insignia of federally- and State-recognized Native American tribes under trademark law. The USPTO conducted the study and presented a report to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees on November 30, 1999. One of the recommendations made in the report was that the USPTO create and maintain an accurate and comprehensive database containing the official insignia of all federally- and State-recognized Native American tribes. In accordance with this recommendation, the Senate Committee on Appropriations directed the USPTO to create this database.
The USPTO database of official tribal insignias assists trademark attorneys in their examination of applications for trademark registration. Additionally, the database provides evidence of what a federally- or State-recognized Native American tribe considers to be its official insignia. The database serves as a reference for examining attorneys when determining the registrability of a mark that may falsely suggest a connection to the official insignia of a Native American tribe. The database is also available to the public on the USPTO Web site.
Tribes are not required to request that their official insignia be included in the database. The entry of an official insignia into the database does not confer any rights to the tribe that submitted the insignia, and entry is not the legal equivalent of registering the insignia as a trademark under 15 U.S.C. 1051 et seq. The inclusion of an official tribal insignia in the database does not create any legal presumption of validity or priority, does not carry any of the benefits of Federal trademark registration, and is not a determination as to whether a particular insignia would be refused registration as a trademark pursuant to 15 U.S.C. 1051 et seq.
Requests from federally-recognized tribes to enter an official insignia into the database must be submitted in writing and include:(1) A depiction of the insignia, including the name of the tribe and the address for correspondence; (2) a copy of the tribal resolution adopting the insignia in question as the official insignia of the tribe; and (3) a statement, signed by an official with authority to bind the tribe, confirming that the insignia included with the request is identical to the official insignia adopted by the tribal resolution.
Requests from State-recognized tribes must also be in writing and include each of the three items described above that are submitted by federally-recognized tribes. Additionally, requests from State-recognized tribes must include either: (a) A document issued by a State official that evidences the State's determination that the entity is a Native American tribe; or (b) a citation to a State statute designating the entity as a Native American tribe. The USPTO enters insignia that have been properly submitted by federally- or State-recognized Native American tribes into the database and does not investigate whether the insignia is actually the official insignia of the tribe making the request.
This collection includes the information needed by the USPTO to enter an official insignia for a federally- or State-recognized Native American tribe into a database of such insignia. No forms are associated with this collection.