04 August 2008
Senate passes bill to make USPTO judges legal
Eileen McDermott, New York
The Senate has passed a bill which would amend US patent and trade mark law to require that USPTO administrative judges be appointed by the secretary of commerce
Senate bill S3295, sponsored by Senator Patrick Leahy, would amend Section 6 of the US Patent Act and Section 17 of the Lanham Act to specify that the secretary of commerce, rather than the USPTO director, is responsible for appointing judges to both the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI) and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB).
The rest of this article is available to subscribers to Managing IP only.
Subscribe today to this product for full access to this article. Alternatively, take a 48-hour free trial giving you access to the current content.
If you are already a subscriber please log in (see top right column) to access the rest of this article.
