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<p>Thank you TEAS person for your email. You report that a few
minutes ago, your development team corrected their earlier coding
mistake that I reported to you four days ago.<br>
</p>
<p>Unfortunately this work by your development team to correct their
earlier coding mistake came too late.</p>
<p>Your development team is irresponsible in the extreme for having
placed untested computer code into production service at least
nine days ago without having carried out simple acceptance testing
on the code.</p>
<p>It was also irresponsible to foot-drag on admitting the defect
(on the System Status page) until merely yesterday (April 28).
Your development team knew about this defect at least as long ago
as April 23, but did not admit to it on the System Status page
until five days later on April 28. Had your development team
admitted to the defect promptly (many days ago), then such a
posting to the System Status page could have saved many trademark
filers from much grief and expense and potential loss of
substantive trademark rights.</p>
<p>Others had reported this defect to the USPTO before last Friday.
But last Friday was the day that I reported this problem to you at
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:TEAS@USPTO.GOV">TEAS@USPTO.GOV</a>. I reported it at 8:42 AM Eastern Time as you may
see from the emails quoted below. There is no doubt that you
received that email, because I have the acceptance handshake from
your email server logged at that time. Yet even five hours later
I had not heard back from you. it was only after I escalated to a
supervisor in the Trademark Assistance Center, and only after she
messaged your office, that you belatedly responded to my report
with your suggested workaround of an ink signature. This was at
1:47 PM ET that day. Had your response been prompt, there is a
chance that my client in Europe could have gotten the ink
signature paperwork done that day. Your delay of more than five
hours in responding to my report guaranteed that the entire
weekend would be lost, due to the time zone difference between me
and my client in Europe.<br>
</p>
<p>I speak for a trademark practitioner community of over one
thousand very experienced trademark practitioners (the
e-Trademarks listserv). The membership of our listserv has,
collectively, paid over ten million dollars in government fees to
the USPTO in the past year alone. What should have happened is
that your development team should have engaged with our community
prior to placing new and untested code into production service.
We could, for example, have beta-tested the experimental code for
your development team. <br>
</p>
<p>As I say, the work by your development team to correct their
earlier coding mistake came too late. In my case, the coding
mistake cost me many thousands of dollars' worth of my
professional time on a group of eight trademark filings,
struggling with workarounds such as your proposed shift to the use
of an ink signature. It likewise cost my client many thousands of
Euros' worth of their time, struggling with the coding mistake.
Worse than the direct loss of money was the very grave risk of
loss of eight important priority claims under Article 4 of the
Paris Convention. We managed to get the eight ill-fated trademark
filings accomplished about three hours ago. But if the problem had
dragged on for just one more day, my client would have irrevocably
lost substantive trademark priority rights for eight trademarks.
Of course it is a welcome thing that your development team
corrected their mistake a few minutes ago. But that corrective
work was too late to make any difference for me or for my client.</p>
<p>I see your request that I now set up a new trademark application
submission to test the corrected code that was placed into service
within recent minutes. I look forward to your commitment that if
I do a new test filing for you, you will refund the otherwise
unnecessary government fee afterwards. With that commitment, I
will be glad to do a test filing for you to test the corrected
code.<br>
</p>
<p>I propose that a videoconference be set up in the next few days
to review the learning opportunities from this group of USPTO
failures. Attendees to the videoconference should include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Someone from the office of the Acting Commissioner for
Trademarks (which office I contacted last Friday about this),
and<br>
</li>
<li>Someone from your Trademark Center development team, and<br>
</li>
<li>Someone from <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:TEAS@USPTO.GOV">TEAS@USPTO.GOV</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>I can then bring along one or two members of our listserv
community who are personally familiar with this particular coding
mistake, to join on the videoconference. We can then discuss the
various learning opportunities from this group of failures, and
hopefully we can identify ways in which the USPTO and our
trademark practitioner community can work together to minimize
such USPTO failures in the future.<br>
</p>
<p>I look forward to hearing back from you about this.</p>
<p>Carl Oppedahl</p>
<p>Oppedahl Patent Law Firm LLC<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 4/29/2025 8:16 AM, TEAS wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:SA9PR09MB481550A3A727C69588A474BC93802@SA9PR09MB4815.namprd09.prod.outlook.com">
<meta name="Generator"
content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)">
<title>Request Esignature</title>
<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Good morning,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Yesterday afternoon the development
team resolved an issue where the E-signature page would not
load correctly when both of the following conditions were
met:</span></p>
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span>The owner entity was entered
manually and not selected from a dropdown, and</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span>The mark drawing type required an
uploaded jpg image</span></li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>If this is applicable to your filing,
could you please try again and let us know if you continue
to encounter any further issues? Otherwise, please contact
us for further troubleshooting and forward an E-signature
request to <a href="mailto:TEAS@uspto.gov"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">TEAS@uspto.gov</a>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Regards,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>TEAS Support Office</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>United States Patent & Trademark
Office</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> <br>
</span></p>
<div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span>From:</span></b><span> TEAS
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:TEAS@USPTO.GOV"><TEAS@USPTO.GOV></a>
<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Friday, April 25, 2025 1:40 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> Carl Oppedahl <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:carl@oppedahl.com"><carl@oppedahl.com></a><br>
<b>Subject:</b> RE: Trademark Center is broken</span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Good afternoon,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Thank you for contacting the TEAS
support mailbox regarding issues with Trademark Center.
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>The referenced error is being caused
by a bug in form. Our developers are currently working on a
resolution. Unfortunately, we do not have a timeframe on
when the issue will be resolved.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>In the meantime, please have your
client close all open windows in their browser, clear their
cache and cookie files
<b><u>for all time</u></b> and log in at <a
href="https://trademarkcenter.uspto.gov/initial-application/e-signature/review-and-sign?id=d16d0e4d-9236-4cc6-92cc-ae2920f06eec"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://trademarkcenter.uspto.gov/initial-application/e-signature/review-and-sign?id=d16d0e4d-9236-4cc6-92cc-ae2920f06eec</a>
. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>If they encounter the same error, you
may want to consider using the \u201cUpload your signed
declaration\u201d option. Selecting this option and then clicking
on the blue \u201cGenerate signature form\u201d button will generate a
PDF version of the declaration that can be downloaded and
sent to the applicant for signature. Once you receive the
signed document, return to the Declaration and signature
page to complete the upload.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><img width="486" height="333"
id="Picture_x0020_3"
src="cid:part1.rEA8Unfe.IvZZrHWc@oppedahl.com" class=""><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><img width="567" height="366"
id="Picture_x0020_4"
src="cid:part2.jn90SOlV.nZXVK1dR@oppedahl.com" class=""><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><img width="423" height="483"
id="Picture_x0020_5"
src="cid:part3.1woATXzs.CS1pCIiz@oppedahl.com" class=""><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Please send us another email if you
have any technical questions about Trademark Center or the
TEAS forms. For general Trademark information and questions,
please contact the
<a
href="https://www.uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/support-centers/trademark-assistance-center"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">
<span>Trademark Assistance Center</span></a> at <a
href="mailto:TrademarkAssistanceCenter@uspto.gov"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">
<span>TrademarkAssistanceCenter@uspto.gov</span></a> or
telephone 1-800-786-9199 (select option #1). Telephone
assistance is available Monday-Friday (except federal
holidays) from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET. </span></p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Regards,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>TEAS Support Work Staff</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>United States Patent &
Trademark Office</span></p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
</p>
<div>
<div>
<table class="MsoNormalTable">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Subject: </b></p>
</td>
<td>
<p class="MsoNormal">Trademark Center is broken</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Date: </b></p>
</td>
<td>
<p class="MsoNormal">Fri, 25 Apr 2025 06:42:45 -0600</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>From: </b></p>
</td>
<td>
<p class="MsoNormal">Carl Oppedahl <a
href="mailto:carl2@oppedahl.com"
moz-do-not-send="true"><carl2@oppedahl.com></a></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>To: </b></p>
</td>
<td>
<p class="MsoNormal">TEAS <a
href="mailto:teas@uspto.gov"
moz-do-not-send="true"><teas@uspto.gov></a></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>I send this link to my client in Europe so that they can
review and sign the trademark application. What happens
next is really bad for my client.</p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">If anybody (the client, me, anybody)
clicks on the link (the original link, from the TC
email), it briefly jumps to the screen where the client
might review and sign. But then, within a couple of
seconds, the web site jumps to
<a href="https://trademarkcenter.uspto.gov/"
moz-do-not-send="true">"https://trademarkcenter.uspto.gov/"</a>.
this happens even if you do not have your hands anywhere
near your keyboard or touch pad or mouse.
<br>
<br>
-------- Forwarded Message -------- </p>
<table class="MsoNormalTable">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Subject: </b></p>
</td>
<td>
<p class="MsoNormal">Trademark application XXXXXXX
ready for review and signature - Docket number
XXXXXXX</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Date: </b></p>
</td>
<td>
<p class="MsoNormal">Thu, 24 Apr 2025 22:26:49
+0000</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>From: </b></p>
</td>
<td>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a
href="mailto:TMOfficialNotices@uspto.gov"
moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">TMOfficialNotices@uspto.gov</a></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Reply-To: </b></p>
</td>
<td>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a
href="mailto:TrademarkAssistanceCenter@uspto.gov" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">TrademarkAssistanceCenter@uspto.gov</a></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>To: </b></p>
</td>
<td>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a
href="mailto:carl2@oppedahl.com"
moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">carl2@oppedahl.com</a></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h2>United States Patent and Trademark Office</h2>
<h3>Review and sign your trademark application</h3>
<p>You must forward the email to the person who will sign
the application. By signing, they swear to the truth of
the information in the application.</p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Mark:</b> </p>
</div>
<p>Use this link by <em><b><span>Monday June 23, 2025 at
18:26:48 ET</span></b></em> to
<a name="_Hlk196480271" moz-do-not-send="true"></a><a
href="https://trademarkcenter.uspto.gov/initial-application/e-signature/review-and-sign?id=d16d0e4d-9236-4cc6-92cc-ae2920f06eec"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"><span>review
and sign your trademark application</span><span></span></a><span></span>.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
<a href="https://www.uspto.gov/terms-use-uspto-websites"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Terms of Use</a>
|
<a href="https://www.uspto.gov/privacy-policy"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Privacy Policy</a>
|
<a
href="https://www.uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/account-faqs"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">
Account FAQs</a> </p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
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