So your time-of-filing trademark watching service 1 warned you that someone filed a use-based application to register a mark that’s awfully close to your mark.
You drill into their application file history and notice that their proof of use of their trademark looks like this:
Continue reading “Strategies for Squashing Sketchy Specimens”
We think letters of protest are so great that we wrote our very first blog post about them.
You might remember from Tore DeBella’s post that we often file letters of protest in an attempt to persuade the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to refuse registration of third-party trademark applications. Such letters can help delay or even avoid having to file costly oppositions – if you follow the rules, that is. Some highlights of the rules are as follows.
You might remember from Tore DeBella’s post that we just love letters of protest . They can delay or even avoid the need to file formal opposition proceedings in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. But wait — how do you learn about conflicting applications *before* they’re published for opposition purposes? Many watching services don’t notify you of conflicting applications until *after* the application has been published. That’s almost always too late to get your letter of protest granted.
Continue reading “Our Second (Sort of) Secret Weapon: Time-of-Filing Trademark Watching Services”
It was a mere 43 years ago, in 1972, when Steely Dan first mused “times are hard/you’re afraid to pay the fee/so you find yourself somebody/who can do the job for free.” The “somebody” in Steely Dan’s hit song, appropriately titled “Dirty Work,” was almost certainly not a reference to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (in fact, it likely had a more subtle, less appropriate meaning), but the reference could apply nonetheless. How does one let the PTO do their trademark enforcement “dirty work? By filing a letter of protest, of course.
Continue reading “Our (Sort Of) Secret Weapon: Letters of Protest”
