Trademark examiner

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A trademark examiner is an attorney employed by a government entity such as the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to determine whether an applicant should be permitted to receive a trademark registration, thus affording legal protection to the applicant's trademark. [1] The job of a trademark examiner is thus to examine marks applied for to determine if they run afoul of any prohibitions on registration, such as infringing upon an existing registration of the same mark, or constituting the generic name of the goods with which the mark is associated. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

In the United States

The USPTO employs several hundred trademark examiners at any given time, although the number fluctuates with the strength of the economy, which influences how many new trademark filings are being submitted. [5] These employees are evaluated by a point system, based on the number of applications that they address and dispose of, either by permitting them to go forward to registration, or denying registration in an office action, and seeing this denial through any appeals taken within the USPTO. Some USPTO trademark examiners work in the USPTO building in Alexandria, Virginia, but a majority telework full-time.

In 2011, proposed budget cuts of $100 million to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office budget of slightly over $2 billion were reported to not have any impact on the size of the Trademark staff. [6] However, all hiring in 2011 at the USPTO was frozen.

In Turkey

The TPI (Turkish Patent Institute) employs more than hundred trademark examiners at any given time. All TPI trademark examiners work in the TPE building in Ankara, Turkey.

At first, an examiner starts to work as an assistant for three years. After 2 years TPE wants from him to prepare a thesis about any subject of trademark. He studies on thesis nearly 10 months. After that he presents it to the Board of Directors. If thesis accepted by the Board, examiner will enter an exam about the thesis. If everything goes on its way, assistant examiner is going to leave the assistance label and will become a trademark examiner. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

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A trademark attorney or trade mark attorney or agent is a person who is qualified to act in matters involving trademark law and practice and provide legal advice on trade mark and design matters.

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The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) is a body within the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) responsible for hearing and deciding certain kinds of cases involving trademarks. These include appeals from decisions by USPTO Examiners denying registration of marks, and opposition proceedings filed against trademark applications. TTAB panels hear hundreds of claims each year asserting that trademarks should not be registered because they are generic, disparaging, or confusingly similar to existing marks. Such challenges to registration are initially considered by trademark examining attorneys, whose judgment may be appealed to the TTAB. Decisions of the TTAB may, in turn, be appealed to a United States district court, or the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

The Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) is published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for use by patent attorneys and agents and patent examiners. It describes all of the laws and regulations that must be followed in the examination of U.S. patent applications, and articulates their application to an enormous variety of different situations. The MPEP is based on Title 37 of the Code of Federal Regulations, which derives its authority from Title 35 of the United States Code, as well as on case law arising under those titles. The first version of the MPEP was published in 1920 by the Patent and Trademark Office Society.

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Concurrent use registration

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A trademark classification is a way the trademark examiners and applicants' trademark attorneys arrange documents, such as trademark and service mark applications, according to the description and scope of the types of goods or services to which the marks apply. The same trademark or service may be classified in several classes, and some countries permit several classes to be registered in the same document. There are fees ordinarily associated with each classification, whether for initial application or later renewal.

Trademark Recognizable sign, design or expression which identifies products or services

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An unregistered or common law trademark is an enforceable mark created by a business or individual to signify or distinguish a product or service. A common law or unregistered trademark is legally different from a registered trademark granted by statute.

The Washington Redskins trademark dispute was a legal effort by Native Americans to define the term "redskin" to be an offensive and disparaging racial slur to prevent the owners of the Washington Redskins football team from being able to maintain federal trademark protection for this name. These efforts have primarily been carried forward in two cases brought before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). While prevailing in the most recent case in which the trademarks were cancelled, petitioners have withdrawn for further litigation now that the legal issue has become moot due to a decision in another case which found the relevant portion of the trademark law to be an unconstitutional infringement on freedom of speech.

Registration of intellectual property in Ghana is key to safeguarding one's intellectual efforts from infringement. Intellectual property law of Ghana encompasses intellectual property (IP) laws in Ghana, such as laws governing copyright, patent, trademark, industrial design rights, and unfair competition. The main intellectual property laws in Ghana include the Copyright Act, 2005, the Patents Act, 2003, the Trademarks Act, 2004, the Industrial Designs Act, 2003 and the Protection Against Unfair Competition Act, 2000. These are supplemented by regulations passed by the Legislature to augment the rate of development under IP laws.

References

  1. ↑ Attorney Trademark Examiner, definition
  2. ↑ IP Australia (Australian Patent and Trademark agency) job description for trademark examiner Archived 2012-03-22 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ↑ Report on 2011 EU-China Trademark Examiner Seminar
  4. ↑ "Trademark monitoring". Monday, 8 July 2019
  5. ↑ U.S. Patent and Trademark Office careers, Trademark Examiners Archived 2012-04-15 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ↑ USPTO to Face Budget Cuts
  7. ↑ http://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/eskiler/2013/04/20130406-3.htm


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