More Changes Coming to the USPTO's Online Presence

The USPTO issued a press release on December 7th. Here are the details:

On or about December 16, 2011, the USPTO will introduce a new system, Trademark Status and Document Retrieval (TSDR 1.0). TSDR 1.0 will redefine the way Trademark status data and all documents will be displayed to the public. It reengineers the existing functionality that TARR and TDR currently provide and adds new features, providing access to one place for viewing, printing, and downloading snapshots of the data the USPTO stores about a trademark application or registration.

New features include:

• The ability to preview and print the status content being presented.
• The ability to download a PDF or the original form of the status content (an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file).
• The ability to view the mark as stored in the USPTO mark image repository, and expand the size thereof through mouse rollover feature.
• The organization of content into logical sections, with a more logical arrangement of the content within those sections.
• The ability to collapse and expand sections of the data.
• The ability to move easily between status and document content.
• The presentation of basis data at both the case and class levels.
• Links to related properties, where applicable.
• Access to Trademark status data without going to the TSDR site via an Application Programming Interface (API), which is accessible via unique URL’s that allow the retrieval of data in a specified format (PDF or XML).
• Significant decrease in the amount of time between an update to the internal USPTO database record and what is available externally (seconds as opposed to hours).

Please note that, at a currently undetermined point, both TARR and TDR will disappear. Until then, the links for both TARR and TDR will take the user to an "interim" page, from which either the existing system can be reached or the new TSDR 1.0 can be accessed.

Occupy Trademark

The Occupy Wall Street movement has moved into the trademark arena with a number of new trademark application filings.

There are currently two filings for Occupy Wall Street both of which were filed on the same day:

* Occupy Wall Street, which appears to be owned by those directly involved with the movement.
* Occupy Wall Street, which is owned by Fer-Eng Investments, LLC. "Fer-Eng Investments appears to be a shell corporation with the only officer named as “The Ferraro-Eng Family Trust.” The names provided on the address refer to Vincent Ferraro and Wee Nah Eng. Interestingly enough, Ferraro, a Stanford Business School grad, is the former Vice-President of Worldwide Marketing for Hewlett-Packard"

Now, those affiliated with the movement filed as in-use so Fer-Eng's intent-to-use filing will likely not end well.

The two latest to jump into the trademark pool are:

OCCUPY Las Vegas
Occupy Los Angeles

The LA mark filed for "political action committee services, namely, promoting the interests of Occupy Los Angeles in the field of politics" whereas the Las Vegas mark filed for clothing.

In a Las Vegas Review Journal interview, Mary Underwood (the protester who filed the application) stated ""This way we can make the argument that they are harming our brand...This is just a bulwark against people using the term in sketchy ways."

Underwood said she doesn't intend to restrict use of the term by people from the Occupy Las Vegas site and has plans to turn over the trademark to whatever entity develops to represent Occupy LV."

I'm sure this won't be the last of the Occupy trademarks. My bet is on parody marks next.

What do you think of these filings? Is it hypocrisy, as some have opined? Or is the movement coalescing in order to protect their voice?

Update on the Steve Jobs Exhibit at the USPTO

The USPTO exhibit I wrote about last month honoring Steve Jobs' patents & trademarks is up and running. Check out the awesome iPhone models here.

To check out the more unusual Apple trademarks, read this Atlantic article. I don't know...I think the glass retail store is pretty cool.

Are you going to the USPTO exhibit? Do you have a favorite Apple trademark?