New Project: Permalinks for USPTO Trademark Registrations

Robb — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 21:01:26 +0000

I was doing some trademark research at the firm I’m clerking at, and found just what I was looking for: a particular abandoned trademark registration. I wanted to send a partner an email about it, and so I mistakenly did the natural thing: I copied and pasted the URL (the link) to the USPTO web page.

He replied a few minutes later: the link wouldn’t work. They never do; they expire after 10 minutes or so. And so what happens? Attorneys print out or create PDFs of the USPTO web pages in order to discuss them.

I immediately thought that there must be something that could be done here, and so I started the Trademark Permalink project:

Create links that don’t expire to trademarks at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Use them in emails, on your website, or anywhere else you want to point someone to a trade/service-mark registration.

EDIT:

The story’s gotten a little more complicated: In the past day or so, I discovered that it’s possible that my work might be superfluous: The “TARR” USPTO web app provides single-document retrieval via URLs that don’t time out. Many (most?) practitioners seem to only know about the TESS service, though, which *does* time out. Also, the TARR data seems to come from a different source, and is definitely a different format. For example, the IBM registration I use as an example:

http://weblaws.org/tm/75871833

…can be linked to directly on TARR:

http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=75871833

However, like I mentioned above, TARR only seems to give single-document retrieval. TESS will return the results of a query like “All TMs owned by so-and-so.” I’ve been planning to expand my service to create PURLs for these kinds of TESS look-ups as well. (This was the motivation for me to make the service in the first place: I had run a query finding six TMs that I wanted to share with a colleague. But the URL of the search results timed out before he saw my email.)

Confused yet? :-)

Yes, but just how ethical am I? (Is this blog’s name ‘over the line’?)

Robb — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 04:11:03 +0000

Something that’s gnawed at me since I started blogging: Am I being pretty bad by calling this blog, The Robb Report?

The Robb Report, of course, is “The Global Luxury Source”. They’re a reliable destination for Rolls-Royce reviews. We can all probably agree that my blog and the Robb Report travel in different circles.

I’ve known about the magazine for years, most likely from seeing it in doctors’ waiting rooms. And when choosing this name for my blog, one of my reasons was the humor arising from the contrast of the two Robb Reports, for those who are familiar with the senior mark holder.

But I wonder, (1) is what I’m doing ethical? And (2) am I infringing on Robb Report’s mark?

I’ll think about these more after this never-ending final exam period is over.

The Robb Report » trademark

New Project: Permalinks for USPTO Trademark Registrations

Yes, but just how ethical am *I*? (Is this blog’s name ‘over the line’?)

Yes, but just how ethical am I? (Is this blog’s name ‘over the line’?)