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<p>Thank you Scott and thank you Ken for posting.</p>
<p>I don't know enough about the internal workflow on this to make a
confident guess as to the mechanism of action here for each of the
various quality failures that Ken has been tracking (one of which
Scott highlighted for us). For example consider the quality
failure that Scott bemoaned -- failure to assign design codes
promptly.<br>
</p>
<ul>
<li><i><b>Guess A. </b></i>Maybe the workflow for assignment of
design codes has for years gone to some particular workgroup
within the Trademark Office, and maybe starting a year ago or
so, that workgroup got starved of resources. So the work is
just not getting done and is now backlogged worse than half a
year.</li>
<li><i><b>Guess B. </b></i>Maybe the workflow for assignment of
design codes has for years gone to some particular workgroup
within the Trademark Office, and maybe starting a year ago or
so, that task got reassigned to a contractor, and the contractor
is failing to do the job promptly. Meaning, among other things,
the Trademark Office is not competently administering the
contract. So the work is just not getting done and is now
backlogged worse than half a year.</li>
<li>
<i><b>Guess C. </b></i>Maybe the workflow for assignment of
design codes has for years gone to some contractor, and maybe a
year ago or so the Trademark Office decided to bring the task
back in-house, and the Trademark Office is failing to handle
this well. So the work is just not getting done and is now
backlogged worse than half a year.</li>
<li>
<i><b>Guess D. </b></i>Maybe the team of workers is pretty
small, let's say five workers. And design-code cases with a
last digit of 0 and 1 go to worker 1, and design-code cases with
a last digit of 2 or 3 go to worker 2, and so on. And a year
ago or so, workers 2 and 4 retired or got promoted or something,
and very little attention has been given to the docket for those
two workers.</li>
</ul>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">
<p>For no reason other than guessing, I point to Guess C.
Recall that there was the big push at the USPTO maybe five
years ago to cut off some of Reed Publishing's most lucrative
contracts, namely the contracts for typesetting and printing
physical patents and physical trademark registration
certificates. The likely souring of the relationship with
Reed probably had knock-on effects. For example the handling
of incoming faxes at the patent central fax number had been
outsourced to Reed and now there is a three-month backlog on
the patent side with handling of incoming faxes. <br>
</p>
<p>So what if Reed had, until say a year ago, been the
outsourced contractor for assignment of design codes? And
maybe now that has soured and maybe has been (unsuccessfully)
been brought back in-house.<br>
</p>
<br>
</div>
On 2/23/2025 8:08 AM, Ken Boone via E-trademarks wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:SN6PR14MB22375310AC48B695345AAB4BD5C12@SN6PR14MB2237.namprd14.prod.outlook.com">
<div class="elementToProof"><span>From my
</span><span>Some Quality Control Checks/Suggestions Using
Trademark Search</span><span> posting yesterday, the search
</span><span><b>SN:( /<79000000-79399439>/ ) AND
MD:unknown AND LD:true</b></span><span>\u2002\u2002retrieved\u2002</span><span><b>456
</b></span><span>Madrid applications received at the USPTO
prior to 9 July 2024 that
<b><u>still have the UNKNOWN mark drawing code - that Pre-Exam
has yet to provide the appropriate mark drawing code (and
design codes) to those trademarks</u></b>, some of which
are likely already under examination. Similarly, the search
</span><span><b>FD:[* TO 20240708] AND MD:unknown AND LD:true
NOT (SN:79* SN:89* )\u2002</b></span><span>retrieves
</span><span><b>41</b></span><span> US applications filed prior
to 9 July 2024 that still have not been processed by Pre-Exam.</span></div>
<div class="elementToProof">
<br>
</div>
<div class="elementToProof">
It has been my experience that if an EA gets assigned an
application that Pre-Exam has skipped, the EA may not bother to
update the mark drawing code or add appropriate design codes, as
that is not their job. Instead, the EA will often just look at
the raw application. I saw an application recently where the EA
did NOT notice that the GS entries from the application were
missing on TM Search and TSDR status listing and approved the
trademark for publication. The application then was now stalled
for further review, likely because the publication review
noticed the GS text was missing and could not be printed in the
OG. I dare say that application was one of the applications
that was retrieved by one of the QC searches in my posting
yesterday. </div>
<div class="elementToProof">
\u2002\u2002\u2002</div>
<div class="elementToProof">
Maybe now you now see some significance for that QC Search
posting?</div>
<div id="Signature" class="elementToProof">
<div>
<br>
</div>
<div>
Ken Boone</div>
</div>
<hr tabindex="-1">
<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><b>From:</b> E-trademarks
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:e-trademarks-bounces@oppedahl-lists.com"><e-trademarks-bounces@oppedahl-lists.com></a> on behalf of
Keller, Scott via E-trademarks
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:e-trademarks@oppedahl-lists.com"><e-trademarks@oppedahl-lists.com></a><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Sunday, February 23, 2025 6:50 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:e-trademarks@oppedahl-lists.com">e-trademarks@oppedahl-lists.com</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:e-trademarks@oppedahl-lists.com"><e-trademarks@oppedahl-lists.com></a><br>
<b>Cc:</b> Keller, Scott <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:SKeller@wnj.com"><SKeller@wnj.com></a><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [E-trademarks] Delay in Design Code Assignment
<div> </div>
</div>
<div lang="EN-US">
<div class="x_WordSection1"><span>Has anyone else noticed that
it is taking a long time for design codes to be assigned. I
just got a design code email on an application I filed
August 1, 2025. It seems to me this used to happen within
days or at least a week of filing. This had an effect on
other applications I filed because I found with two other
applications that, while the application was in TSDR, I
could not prepopulate a Madrid application. I sent emails
to Trademark assistance and after I received the design code
designation email, the Madrid would prepopulate. It is
going to be an issue for Madrid applications if this is the
standard practice now to wait over 6 months before issuing
the design code designations and prepopulation cannot occur
until then. I know I can just fill in the whole Madrid
application, but that is time consuming and can lead to
errors that would not occur with pre-population.</span>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
</div>
</div>
<br>
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