April 2, 2004

Trademark Daily XML Files - Weekly Status Report

The following is a status update for all inquiries.

Inquiries can be made to: Ed Johnson at Ed.Johnson@uspto.gov - (703) 306-2621 or Marva Dubar at Marva.Dubar@uspto.gov - (703) 305-1669 or sent to OEIP@uspto.gov.

*The format of our Weekly Status Report has changed slightly for ease of use:

1. Each inquiry is given a USPTO Control # for tracking purposes.
2. The summary portion of “Status of Inquiries” will be “grouped” by the current status.
3. The detail portion of the report will be in sequence Control # (for easier reference).

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*The status on the availability of the 2003 Annual Trademark (Retrospective) files is as follows:

-The 2003 Trademark Retrospective Assignment/XML file is available for purchase.

-The 2003 Trademark Retrospective Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB)/XML file is available for purchase.

-The 2003 Trademark Retrospective Live/XML and the Trademark Retrospective Dead/XML files. Note: As of (04/02/2004): The process of creating the Live and Dead retrospective files continues. This includes the UTF-8 character set resolution identified in Control #13 and Control #14.

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As previously reported beginning with the Trademark Daily Files dated April 1, 2004 the following daily application, assignment and TTAB files will be available:

apbYYMMDD.zip
asbYYMMDD.zip
ttYYMMDD.zip

The following daily application file and assignment file, considered the "A" version, will no longer be available after the files dated March 31, 2004.

apYYMMDD.zip
asYYMMDD.zip

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Status of Inquiries:

Closed:

*4 have been resolved. Reference Inquiries (Control #13, #14, #35 and #36).

Awaiting Policy Decision from the Commission of Trademarks:

*1 is open awaiting a policy decision from the Commission of Trademarks Office (Control #17).

*1 is open concerning the fact that text records do not match images (designs). Reference (Control #32).

In Progress:

04/02/2004:

*1 "The use of Country Codes" continues to be evaluated with Control #16. Reference Inquiry (Control #21).

*1 "The inclusion of 3 IB data fields and the Madrid Protocol Timing Issue" continues to be evaluated with Control #21. Reference Inquiry (Control #16).

Open:

*1 is open concerning the content of the 24 Hour Box. Reference Inquiry (Control #30).

Inquiries that have been resolved will have the resolution in black, bold, italicized and underlined.

Any inquiries that require additional research and/or response are considered outstanding inquiries and will appear in red, bold and italicized.

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Inquiry – 02/05/2004: (Control #13)

Characters such as diacritical marks appear not to be handled properly. In the daily file dated 20040120 two examples (SN 79000127 and SN 7900022) the umlauted lu (ü) and the circumflexed a (â) that appear in the city names Zürich and Neuchâtel are not provided as ISO entity variables "ü" and "â" respectively. Meanwhile, other characters, such as punctuation, are rendered correctly, e.g. the ampersand "&" is sent as "&".

04/02/2004: The Application Daily process has been corrected to ensure that all proper UTF-8 characters are being used.

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Inquiry – 02/06/2004: (Control #14)

While processing XML File xml\040205\ap040205.xml an invalid UTF-8 character (Unicode: 0x4) was found in the element content of the document.

04/02/2004: The Application Daily process has been corrected to ensure that all proper UTF-8 characters are being used.

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Inquiry – 11/12/2003: (Control #16)

This inquiry was initially received 11/12/2003. A further clarification (as defined below) of the initially inquiry was received 03/02/2004.

There are fields available on TARR for an Application/Registration that has requested protection into a Madrid Protocol country that do no appear in the current DTD of the daily application file being disseminated. They are:

USPTO Control Number:
Original Filing Date with USPTO:
Date of Last Irregularity:

The other data fields included in the Madrid Protocol Information section on TARR are fields that appear in the current DTD of the daily application file being disseminated.

What we'd like is to have this information sent to us in the daily file being disseminated when the Application/Registration has been applied for and then updated with the additional Madrid related fields upon BIRTH from the IB.

The second part of the question goes to timing -- how long from the time the Applicant/Registrant requests protection under Madrid Protocol to another country will this information become available to us?

And how long before the USPTO sends it to WIPO? How long before WIPO makes it available in their Madrid Express database?

04/02/2004:

1. A decision has been made by management that the Daily XML files will contain appropriate information that is present on TESS and TARR including the above 3 data fields. Software and documentation must be evaluated and updated. This effort will also analyze providing status changes in a more timely manner. Status of this effort will be reported each week until completed.

2. The answer to the second part is currently rather difficult due to the enormous backlog volume at the International Bureau (IB). The USPTO has just recently processed applications with IB filing dates for the beginning of January 2004.

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Inquiry – 10/31/2003: (Control #17)

Correspondent and owner information are provided.

It is requested that the telephone number, the fax number and email address, if available information, for the correspondent and owner be provided.

04/02/2004: This inquiry is awaiting a policy decision from the Commission of Trademarks Office.

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Inquiry – 6/06/2003: (Control #21)

In reviewing the country codes for each of the 3 XML files and discovered the following

*Trademark-Applications XML

Uses 3 digit code from TWTF file

*Trademark-Assignments XML

Uses no codes at all, they expand all codes (Spelling out countries)

*Trademark-Proceedings XML

Uses officially designated country as prescribed by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standard ST.3

04/02/2004: Evaluation of this inquiry continues in the Office of Data Architecture and Services.

Note: This is being evaluated along with Inquiry – 11/12/2003: (Control #16)

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Inquiry – 03/11/2004: (Control #30)

1. We've noticed something different with the 24 Hour Box. It looks like there are records in the root directory that may belong in the Amended folder -- 75919455 dates back to 2000 -- why would this be considered a Pending Application?

04/02/2004: This remains under investigation.

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2. Also there is a folder TEST which contains 79 series records. Is this something we should expect?

The development staff of the 24 Hour Box is using the TEST folder. That is why you see additional test data there.

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Inquiry – 03/14/2004: (Control #32)

Text records and images (designs) do not match. The following 4 examples are being provided:

1. Serial Number: 76495376

This application was filed February 25, 2003 with an image (design) including a Mark-Identification containing: “V”.

On February 24, 2004 a miscellaneous transaction was received for this application with the Mark-Identification containing “VINNY, THE MEAT-EATING VENUS FLYTRAP”.

Which Mark-Identification is correct?

2. Serial Number: 76280316

This application was filed July 7, 2001 with an image (design only) no Mark-Identification.

On February 19, 2004 a miscellaneous transaction was received for this application that contains a Mark-Identification of: “EMERALD LADY OF HAWAII”.

Which Mark-Identification is correct?

3. Serial Number: 76577551

This application was filed February 17, 2004. The following information was provided as Trademark/Service Mark Information:

(1) “NOT HALF, BUT THE WHOLE NUT – LSU 21 ou 14 – THE TWELFTH MAN”

(2) AND SEE THE ATTACHED GRAPHIC, WHICH IS THE COMPLETE GRAPHIC OF THE VISUAL TRADEMARK AS PER INSTRUCTIONS. THE COCONUT IS PART OF THE VISUAL PROTECTED
PROPERTY/MARK.

THE PHRASE (1) AND THE GRAPHIC (2) ARE SUBMITTED FOR TRADEMARK APPLICATION.

It appears that the information in (2) above that describes the graphic has become part of the Word Mark.

4. Serial Number: 78337477

This application was filed on February 12, 2003 with and image (design).

Should the Mark-Identification “MULTIFAXSYSTEM” be a description of the mark and not included as part of the trademark?

04/02/2004: This has been given to the appropriate area within the Commission of Trademarks to investigate.

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Inquiry – 03/18/2004: (Control #35)

You are still sending bad UTF-8 characters.

[Fatal Error] tt040322.xml:29754:28: Character reference "&#18" is an invalid XML character. Error: Parse error occurred - Character reference "&#18" is an Invalid XML character.

04/02/2004: When any invalid character is encounter from the result of a data entry error “&#18” is present in the XML file to denote an invalid character. Steps are being taken to correct the data entry process. Note: Retrospective invalid characters could still be present and must be corrected as they are identified.

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Inquiry – 03/22/2004: (Control #36)

1. Please explain the content for a Text-Type “TNSF”.

04/02/2004:

Transformation for a request of extension of protection into a national application is allowed when the death of the international registration is a result of the cancellation of the underlying mark by the office of origin. The TNSF data element for the request of the extension of protection will contain the serial number of the new national application. The TNSF data element of the new national application will contain the serial number of the original request for extension of protection.

The TDXF will contain data for both applications. The record would also contain a <type-code> for TNSF and a <text> tag with the appropriate serial number. For instance the current record in the TDXF being processed is for serial number 99/999001 the TNSF value would be 99/999002. When the TDXF record being processed is for serial number 99/999002, the TNSF value would be 99/999001. Thus providing the two way (or more) relationship that exists/existed.

2. And also information relating to the content for a Text-Type “LINKBR”.

04/02/2004: The Text-Type data content “LINKBR” was initially introduced by the International Bureau (IB) but has been subsequently removed and will not be used. Documentation will be updated to reflect this change.

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If you have any questions or need additional information please contact one of the following individuals:

Ed Johnson	Marva Dubar
Information Products Division	Information Dissemination
Data Dissemination Branch	Systems Division
(703) 306-2621	(703) 305-1669
(703) 306-2737 Fax	(703) 308-5164 Fax
Ed.Johnson@uspto.gov	Marva.Dubar@uspto.gov