Patent and Trademark Office in the United States
Patent And Trademark Office (Pto) Definition
U.s. Patent And Trademark Office (Uspto) in this Legal Encyclopedia
U.s. Patent And Trademark Office (Uspto) definition in the Law Dictionary
Patent And Trademark Office (Pto) Online Resources
To register a mark, go to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office-the PTO (www.uspto.gov/), which has proven itself, under Commissioner Q. Todd Dickenson, to be one of the most nimble federal agencies in moving to the Internet and making electronic transactions easy for its customers. There’s so much going on here that it warrants a more extensive examination than I normally give to one site.
The Trademarks section (www.uspto.gov/web/menu/tm.html) and the Trademark Electronic Business Center (www.uspto.gov/web/menu/tmebc/index.html) are the PTO’s primary areas for trademark searches, electronic filing, and application and registration status. You can use either route to find the Trademark Electronic Search System, which is known as TESS (http://tess.uspto.gov), and which replaces the older Trademark Search Database. TESS contains more than 2.9 million pending, registered, and dead records and includes improved features such as providing the name of the attorney of record. Trademark Applications & Registrations Retrieval (http://tarr.usto.gov/) is a related site that offers the current status of a trademark, searchable by serial or registration number.
Several other links in the Trademarks section are worthy of notice. Trademark Forms (www.uspto.gov/web/forms/index.html#TM) provides forms, some of them in Adobe’s PDF format, for which you will need the free Adobe Reader (www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html). These can be printed and completed offline. However, the PTO keeps moving forward by also offering interactive forms that can be finished online through the Trademark Electronic Application System, called TEAS (www.uspto.gov/teas/index.html). All aspects of trademark applications, including payment, now can be handled online. You can file electronic forms (www.uspto.gov/teas/eTEASforms.htm) for a range of needs, from a simple trademark application to a declaration of incontestability. An added bonus is that if you can’t submit the application electronically (because your browser predates Netscape Navigator 3.0 or Internet Explorer 4.0), you can print the completed form through Prin TEAS (www3.uspto.gov/teas/PrinTEASforms.htm) and mail it to the PTO, along with the payment.
Information in the Fee Information section (www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/qs/ope/1999/fee20001001.htm#tmfee) is current and clearly stated and takes any confusion or guesswork out of the day. The guide to Registration of Internet Domain Names (www.uspto.gov/web/offices/tac/notices/guide299.htm) is a 1999 discussion of this still controversial subject and is a must-read in the Internet era.
The PTO has made its online presence invaluable to intellectual property counsel to the extent of making commercial print and CD products pointless. Examples of what is available include the Acceptable Identification of Goods and Services Manual (www.uspto.gov/web/offices/tac/doc/gsmanual/), the Design Search Code database (www.uspto.gov/tmdb/dscm/index.html), the Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure (www.uspto.gov/web/offices/tac/tmep/), and U.S. Trademark Law Rules of Practice and Federal Statutes (www.uspto.gov/web/offices/tac/tmlaw2.html). The last isn’t hyperlinked and is an enormously long file, but it is up-to-date.
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Manual of Procedure (www.uspto.gov/web/offices/dcom/ttab/tbmp/) is available as hypertext links in either ACSII or PDF. You also have access, through the Freedom of Information Act link, to the Final Decisions of the Office of the Commissioner for Trademarks (www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/sol/foia/tac/tac.htm) and the Final Decisions of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board sites.
Procedure in the Patent Office
The following information about Patents, and the Patent System. is from the Cyclopaedia of Political Science, Political Economy, and the Political History of the United States by the Best American and European Writers (1899):
Since 1836 the whole business of issuing patents has been conducted by the patent office at Washington. Applications for patents are made to the commissioner of patents in accordance with a prescribed form, which consists of a petition for the allowance of the patent, and an oath that the applicant believes himself to be the first inventor, and that he does not know or believe that the invention was ever before known or used. These forms accompany the specification or description of the invention, which is by far the most important part of the application. The statute provides that the specification shall describe the invention in such “full, clear, concise and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art or science to which it appertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make, construct, compound and use the same.”
The object of this provision is to secure to the public the benefit of the invention after the expiration of the patent, which, as we have seen, is part of the compact between the patentee and the state. The specification concludes with the “claims,” in which the inventor is required to “particularly point out and distinctly claim the part, improvement or combination which he claims as his invention or discovery.” Drawings accompany the specification in all cases which admit of them, and the commissioner may require the applicant to furnish the patent office with a model or specimen, although these are now not often required.
Application
The application, on being filed in the office, is referred to the examiner or officer in charge of the department in which the invention is classed. The examiner teen proceeds to make an examination of the invention, and of the patent office records, to ascertain whether it possesses novelty and utility. An examination of the records of foreign patent bureaus and of scientific works is also necessary, to ascertain whether the invention has been anticipated abroad, or whether it has been described in any printed publication. If from any of these sources anything is found which shows the invention claimed, or any feature of it, to be wanting in novelty, the applicant is notified by the examiner, and a report is sent him rejecting the application, stating specifically in what features novelty is lacking, and giving references to such prior patents or records as anticipate the invention.
The applicant thus has an opportunity to amend his application so as to make it conform to the state of the art, and to eliminate the features that are not new. If the objection raised by the examiner is deemed groundless, the applicant may attempt, by argument or explanation, to remove it. In case of adverse decision, an appeal will lie from the decision of the primary examiner to an intermediate board, consisting of three examiners-in-chief; and if the applicant is still dissatisfied, he can bring his case before the commissioner of patents. If no objection is raised by the primary examiner, or if all objection is removed by amendment or overcome by argument, the application is allowed. The fee upon filing an application is $15; and upon the issue of the patent, $20. The final fee is required to be paid within six months after the allowance of the patent, and the specification is then printed, and the patent issued for the term of seventeen years from the date of its issue.
In the U.S. Code
35 U.S.C. § 1 : US Code – Section 1: Establishment
This description of the Patents tracks the language of the U.S. Code, except that, sometimes, we use plain English and that we may refer to the “Act” (meaning Patents) rather than to the “subchapter” or the “title” of the United States Code.
U.S. Code Citation
U.S. Code Section and Head
- United States Code – Section 1
- Head of the Section: Establishment
Text of the Section
(a) Establishment. – The United States Patent and Trademark Office is established as an agency of the United States, within the Department of Commerce. In carrying out its functions, the United States Patent and Trademark Office shall be subject to the policy direction of the Secretary of Commerce, but otherwise shall retain responsibility for decisions regarding the management and administration of its operations and shall exercise independent control of its budget allocations and expenditures, personnel decisions and processes, procurements, and other administrative and management functions in accordance with this title and applicable provisions of law. Those operations designed to grant and issue patents and those operations which are designed to facilitate the registration of trademarks shall be treated as separate operating units within the Office.
(b) Offices. – The United States Patent and Trademark Office shall maintain its principal office in the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area, for the service of process and papers and for the purpose of carrying out its functions. The United States Patent and Trademark Office shall be deemed, for purposes of venue in civil actions, to be a resident of the district in which its principal office is located, except where jurisdiction is otherwise provided by law. The United States Patent and Trademark Office may establish satellite offices in such other places in the United States as it considers necessary and appropriate in the conduct of its business. (c) Reference. – For purposes of this title, the United States Patent and Trademark Office shall also be referred to as the “Office” and the “Patent and Trademark Office”.
This part of the Encyclopedia of Law provides an overview of the basic attributes of patents, along with the patentability requirements, practice in the USPTO, primarily the steps involved in obtaining a patent, some post-issuance considerations such as the patent term, and the need to mark patented articles to notify the public of the existence of the patent, foreign patent applications, as well as ownership, patent assignments, and patent licensing. Legal issues to take in account also include judicial exceptions to statutory classes, limitations on remedies—notice, patent exhaustion, ownership, assignments and licensing.
PTO (Patent and Trademark Office) in relation to Invention and Patent Law
The office of the Department of Commerce that is responsible for examining and issuing patents.
Patents in the U.S. Code
The United States Patent Code appears in Title 35 of the United State Code.
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