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13 June 2016Trademarks

WIPR survey: Readers say TTAB reforms will be beneficial

WIPR readers have said that the US Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) plans to reform proceedings at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) will be beneficial.

Earlier this month, WIPR reported that the TTAB was closing the public comment period on its proposed rules on Friday, June 3. The USPTO will summarise the comments it received on June 24.

In a notice published on the Federal Register in April this year, the USPTO said it wanted to bring greater clarity and efficiency to TTAB proceedings by introducing changes such as streamlining discovery and pre-trial procedures.

Responding to WIPR’s most recent survey, 75% of respondents said that the proposed reforms would be beneficial.

During the International Trademark Association’s annual meeting held last month, WIPR reported that Gerard Rogers, chief judge at the TTAB, said that the board’s judges were not ‘high fiving’ each other following the US Supreme Court’s decision in B&B Hardware v Hargis Industries.

In that decision, handed down in March last year, the court found that TTAB decisions may be preclusive in later infringement litigation, probably increasing the importance of TTAB proceedings.

Rogers added that the ruling had no impact on the TTAB’s decision to propose new rules governing proceedings.

Full details of the TTAB proposals can be viewed here.

For this week’s survey, we ask: “Last week WIPR reported that the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that fair compensation for private copying cannot be funded through a country's general state budget. Do you agree?”

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