Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Meet the Patent Experts: Class 2

Attend an interactive Q&A session with patent experts at the USPTO Texas Regional Office (TXRO).  Continuing in 2017, The TXRO will have its 4-class curriculum on patents.
Class 1 will be an overview of intellectual property with a focus on patents, EFS-Web and USPTO resources.
  • Class 2 will cover provisional applications and key aspects.
  • Class 3 will cover non-provisional applications and key aspects.
  • Class 4 will cover claim drafting and pitfalls.
Current Schedule:
Class 1: May 17, 2017
Class 2: August 16, 2017
Class 3: September 20, 2017
Class 4: October 18, 2017


If you have questions about your current patent application or if you are looking to pursue one or if you are just interested, please join us.  
This event is free and open to the public. Registration is recommended since space is limited. Register now to secure your seat.  Please go to https://www.uspto.gov/about-us/uspto-locations/dallas-tx/meet-patent-experts-class-2-0 to register.


NOTICE:
If you are unable to come to the Texas Regional Office in Dallas, TX. This event will be webcasted to Patent & Trademark Resource Centers (PTRCs) in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. Please check PTRC locations to find the PTRC nearest to you. Please call ahead to ensure the seminar is being shown at your particular PTRC.  For Rice University's PTRC, please call 713-348-5483.





Friday, August 4, 2017

Federal Agencies Tackling Trademark Scams

Some trademark applicants and registrants have paid fees to private companies while mistakenly thinking they were paying fees required by the USPTO. To combat this problem, last week, the USPTO co-hosted its first ever public roundtable on fraudulent solicitations with the Trademark Public Advisory Committee. The objectives of the event were to educate the public about the problem of misleading or fraudulent advertisements for trademark services, to learn more about what other government agencies were doing, and to brainstorm new ideas for tackling this complex issue.


The USPTO has worked closely in the past with other federal agencies on criminal prosecutions for fraudulent trademark solicitations. During the roundtable, representatives from DOJ and USPIS spoke about the recent criminal convictions in California of five individuals, including employees of a bank, who ran a lucrative trademark scam and knowingly laundered the proceeds. Two have been sentenced and the remaining three are scheduled for sentencing in August. To learn more about this case and the USPTO’s role in it, read my blog from December 2016.


To read the entire article, please visit: https://www.uspto.gov/blog/


This article is from USPTO's Director's Forum: A Blog from USPTO's Leadership.  This particular blog is written by Commissioner for Trademarks Mary Boney Denison.