Online Assignment Filing

The USPTO is advertising on its main page (www.uspto.gov) that online filing for Patent and Trademark Assignments is now available.

Patent and trademark applicants can now file on line for assignments. The new USPTO system allows the agency’s customers to create and submit a patent or trademark assignment recordation coversheet by completing on-line web forms and attaching the supporting legal documentation as TIFF images.

Federal Circuit Untangles Trademark Dispute

by Dennis Crouch

Araujo v. Framboise Holdings Inc., No. 23-1142 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 30, 2024).

In this appeal, the Federal Circuit affirmed a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) decision sustaining an opposition proceeding and refusing registration of the standard character mark #TODECACHO for hair combs. Procedural and Substantive: the Federal Circuit held that the TTAB properly allowed Framboise to extend its trial period; and that substantial evidence supported the TTAB's finding that Framboise established prior use.  Opinion by Judge Lourie, joined by Judges Linn and Stoll.

In Brazilian Portuguese the colloquial phrase - "to de cacho" -  is often used to mean "I am angry."  In the context of this case, however, it references difficult to control curly hair.


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Eligibility and Physical Products

by Dennis Crouch

The six PTAB decisions reviewed below provide insight into the application of 35 USC 101 in cases involving more than just computer hardware and software. While the claims in each decision recite physical devices or molecules, the PTAB still found most to be ineligible as directed to an abstract idea and lacking an integrated inventive concept beyond well-understood, routine conventional activities. A core parallel across the decisions is the PTAB's focus on whether the additional elements in the claims, including the physical components, integrate the judicial exception into a practical application or provide significantly more.


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