Please check out each regional office's event page to see what educational events are offered in the upcoming months. Classes such as Trademark basic, How to protect your IP abroad, How to search for patents, Learn about design patents and more. Most are held online.
For Texas Regional Office events
For Midwest Regional Office events
For Rocky Mountain Regional Office events
For West Coast Regional Office events
On July 31, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) deployed its new Reading Room, which replaces the former TTAB e-FOIA webpage.
Use the Reading Room to search TTAB final decisions and precedential orders. You can search cases by date, issue, and other criteria. You can also search by language within the decision.
Please send comments, questions, and suggestions to TTABFeedback@uspto.gov. We'll consider your feedback for future releases.
Patent Center beta is available for all users. Patent Center is a new tool for electronic filing and management of patent applications in a single unified interface.
Join us for training on how to use various features in Patent Center, including filing in DOCX. Several members of the eCommerce Modernization (eMod) team will share information and conduct a demo, followed by a question-and-answer session.
Register to attend one of these upcoming scheduled webinars:
You will receive instructions for joining the webinar via email prior to the session you registered for.
We encourage you to use Patent Center beta and provide your feedback to help shape the future of our systems. Submit your feedback on eMod IdeaScale. More information about Patent Center beta is available on the Patent Center information page of the USPTO website. Future training opportunities will be posted to that page.
For assistance, questions, or feedback, please contact eMod@uspto.gov.
The following systems will be unavailable due to system maintenance starting at 12:01 a.m. ET Saturday, August 22, and ending at 5:30 a.m. ET Monday, August 24.
This maintenance is part of the USPTO’s ongoing commitment to improving the operational efficiency and stability of our systems and minimizing unexpected business disruptions. See the USPTO system status and availability webpage on the USPTO website for the latest information on the operating status and availability of our online business systems.
Dear colleagues,
Today marks a monumental milestone in the journey toward equal rights for women in the United States. One hundred years ago, on August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment to our Constitution, which granted women the right to vote. With the required approval of three-fourths of the states secured, the Amendment went into effect on August 26 of that year.
This victory would not have been possible without the efforts of suffragists from diverse communities across the nation. For example, Lyda Newman organized an African American branch of the New York Woman Suffrage Party, actively canvassed neighborhoods, and led suffrage meetings in her voting district.
Newman was also an inventor. In 1898, she received U.S. Patent No. 614,335 for a hairbrush that was more efficient and hygienic than existing designs. It was comprised of evenly spaced rows of bristles, with open slots to guide loose hair or impurities into a recessed compartment that users could easily remove and clean out.
In the century since, our nation has made great strides in guaranteeing equal opportunities for women. As we found in our recent report, “Progress and Potential: 2020 update on U.S. women inventor-patentees,” more women are now entering and staying engaged in the patent system, and the gender gap is closing. But there is much more work to be done.
When it comes to expanding the innovation ecosystem, the USPTO is leading the way. Among other efforts, we are partnering with colleagues in other government agencies, as well as industry and academia, to find ways to increase the number of female inventors. We are also highlighting the accomplishments of past and present female inventors, like those featured in our Journeys of Innovation series, to inspire future generations of women to innovate.
As we celebrate the centennial of the 19th Amendment’s ratification, I want to thank you for supporting diversity of innovation and diversity among our own ranks here at the USPTO. Your efforts are making the process of invention more accessible and ensuring our nation’s position as a leader in the global innovation community.
Andrei Iancu
Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property
and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office
On Thursday, August 6, from 11 a.m. to noon ET, learn the critical steps you need to take to protect your intellectual property.
USPTO Patent Examiner Blake Tankersley will discuss the requirements for patentability, drafting nonprovisional and provisional patent applications, and common pitfalls to avoid.
This online workshop is free and open to the public, so register early.
The program is offered in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Small Business Development Center and is accessible to individuals with disabilities. To request a reasonable accommodation, including captioning, sign language interpreting, or other, please email easternregionaloutreachoffice@uspto.gov, visit the Eastern Regional Outreach Office page of the USPTO website, or call 571-272-2243.
While many in-person summer camps have been canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, our partners at the National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) are meeting the needs of families across the country with Camp Invention Connect—a hybrid program for K-6 students that offers imaginative, hands-on learning at home. With a flexible online and offline approach, activity kits packed with materials, and opportunities to connect and collaborate with friends, this new program delivers a unique distance learning experience.
I encourage you to consider Camp Invention Connect for your child. Our colleagues at NIHF do an outstanding job of promoting interest among America’s youth in science, technology, engineering, and math, as well as intellectual property.
To learn more, visit the Camp Invention Connect webpage.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is setting and adjusting Patent and Patent Trial and Appeal Board fees for the first time in almost three years through its Final Rule, effective on October 2, 2020.
Consistent with federal fee-setting standards, in 2017, the USPTO began its biennial review of fees, costs, and revenues, and found that fee adjustments are necessary to adjust to increasing costs and to provide necessary resources for Patent operations, including implementing the USPTO 2018-2022 Strategic Plan.
In 2018, the Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC) held a public hearing in Alexandria, Virginia, inviting members of the public to submit written and/or oral testimony on fee adjustments. PPAC considered the public comments from this hearing and made them available on the USPTO website. Later, PPAC provided a written report setting forth the comments, advice, and recommendations of the public and the committee regarding the preliminary proposed fees.
The USPTO considered and analyzed all comments, advice, and recommendations received from PPAC and then, on July 31, 2019, published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding Setting and Adjusting Patent Fees during Fiscal Year 2020. The USPTO received and considered comments from four intellectual property (IP) organizations and 40 individuals, attorneys, law firms, corporations, and other associations. Responses to the comments are included in the Final Rule.
More recently, the USPTO has considered the state of the U.S. economy, the operational needs of the agency, and the comments and advice received from the public during the 60-day comment period in determining when to implement the final rule. The USPTO then made adjustments to the timing of the Final Rule based on all of these considerations, specifically to delay publishing the Final Rule from April, with a July effective date, to August, with an October effective date. This approach is consistent with the USPTO’s many other efforts to provide various types of relief to stakeholders, including deadline extensions and fee postponements. Ultimately, the goal of the USPTO is to ensure not only that businesses and entrepreneurs can weather the economic downturn, but also that they can hit the ground running as it passes.
Among the changes made in response to the comments, the USPTO decided not to implement the annual active patent practitioner fee at this time and delayed implementation of the fee related to DOCX.
The overall strategy of the Final Rule is to establish a fee schedule that generates sufficient multi-year revenue to recover the aggregate costs of maintaining USPTO patent-related operations and accomplishing the USPTO’s patent-related strategic goals.
The Final Rule will benefit the IP community by enabling the USPTO to continue to enhance the quality of patent examination, achieve optimal examination times, invest in modernizing patent information technology systems and infrastructure, and provide stability to USPTO operations, even in times of financial fluctuations.
To learn more about the fee changes, please visit the Summary of FY 2020 Final Patent Fee Rule page of the USPTO website.
On Tuesday, July 21, the United States Patent and Trademark Office released “Progress and Potential: 2020 Update on U.S. Women Inventor-Patentees,” a follow-up to its 2019 report on U.S. women inventors. The new report found that more women are participating in the intellectual property system than ever before. A brief roundup of reactions to this report includes:
CNET–Women inventors are sticking with it, patent office says
“The percentage of women inventors filing additional patents within five years of their first is on the rise. Data from the United States Patent and Trademark Office shows improvement in the patent field for women since the 1980s.”
Bloomberg–Women Inventors Make Progress but Still Lag Male Counterparts
“American women are making slow but steady progress when it comes to innovation and obtaining legal protection for their inventions, according to a new study by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The share of patents with at least one woman named as inventor was 22% by the end of 2019, up from 20.7% in 2016, according to the study of patents with at least one U.S.-based inventor.”
“…the percentage of women inventors has grown: It stood at less than 5% in 1980, whereas women accounted for more than 17% of the inventors on U.S. patents in 2019. The percentage of women on patents is also up in 45 states when comparing 2007 to 2016 and 2007 to 2019, the USPTO report said.”
World IP Review–USPTO welcomes ‘promising’ women inventor numbers
“USPTO welcomes ‘promising’ women inventor numbers. A new report from the US Patent and Trademark Office reveals that the participation of women in innovation is growing, earning the office praise from the legal industry.”
Law360–USPTO Says Rate Of Women Getting Patents At 'All-Time High'
The report released Tuesday—which focused on women who secured patents in the last three years—found that the rate in which female inventors are participating in the U.S. patent system is at an "all-time high," from 12.1% in 2016 to 12.8% in 2019.
Innovation Alliance–Innovation Alliance Statement on Update to USPTO Report on Women Inventors on U.S. Patents
“The Innovation Alliance commends USPTO Director Iancu and his staff for releasing an update to the 2019 USPTO report on the participation of women in the U.S. innovation economy.”
Andrei Iancu, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO
“To retain our nation’s edge as a global innovation leader, we need even broader participation in patenting. That’s why the USPTO has made outreach to underrepresented groups a top priority.”
This report updates the previous findings based on a review of an additional nearly one million issued patents and three years of new data, and it provides further insights into the participation of women in America’s intellectual property systems.
Read the press release on the USPTO website.
Andrei Iancu, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, today called on consumers to fight against counterfeit products. He did so in an address to the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) as they released their anti-counterfeiting white paper.
“When we fight counterfeiting, we have to look at both sides—supply and demand,” declared Director Iancu. “And on both fronts, we have the strong support of the entire Administration.”
“A creative, collaborative, and ambitious public-private partnership can harness the particular strengths and reach of the partners undertaking this important work,” continued Director Iancu. “Working together—industry and government in a systemic and sustained manner—we can make a real difference.”
Director Iancu was joined by U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) at the webinar-based NAM event, which also featured the high-profile release of their white paper entitled, “Countering Counterfeits: The Real Threat of Fake Products.”
NAM is the largest industrial trade association in the United States, with more than 14,000 member companies across all 50 states.
Read Director Iancu’s full remarks on the USPTO website.