[E-trademarks] PTO abandoning remote work?
Fraser, Jennifer
JFraser at dykema.com
Tue Jan 21 19:21:10 UTC 2025
I believe there is a telework statute for PTO employees so that suggests this order might not apply to the PTO.
Jennifer Fraser
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From: E-trademarks <e-trademarks-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> On Behalf Of Mark Kaufman via E-trademarks
Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2025 2:16 PM
To: For trademark practitioners. This is not for laypersons to seek legal advice. <e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com>
Cc: Mark Kaufman <kaufman at kaufmankahn.com>
Subject: Re: [E-trademarks] PTO abandoning remote work?
Are you suggesting that an unintended consequence of a shoot-from-the-hip Executive Order might be to shut down the very agency that protects U. S. intellectual property (and allegedly makes the United States competitive among the nations)? “I’m
Are you suggesting that an unintended consequence of a shoot-from-the-hip Executive Order might be to shut down the very agency that protects U.S. intellectual property (and allegedly makes the United States competitive among the nations)?
“I’m shocked.”
Thank you,
Mark
Mark S. Kaufman
Kaufman & Kahn, LLP
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From: E-trademarks <e-trademarks-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:e-trademarks-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com>> On Behalf Of Rachael Dickson via E-trademarks
Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2025 2:08 PM
To: For trademark practitioners. This is not for laypersons to seek legal advice. <e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com>>
Cc: Rachael Dickson <rachael at catalyticlaw.com<mailto:rachael at catalyticlaw.com>>
Subject: Re: [E-trademarks] PTO abandoning remote work?
Regarding a hiring freeze: I do not know what the USPTO is doing now, but when I started as a trademark examining attorney in January 2017, I was rushed through the hiring process along with tons of others (way more than they usually would hire at once) and started work a few days before the inauguration. This was done purposefully to get as many people working there before a hiring freeze went through. I strongly suspect they did something similar this year as soon as the election results were clear.
More telework statistics to answer a few people's questions:
According to the USPTO's 2023 Telework report (there doesn't seem to be a 2024 one yet), 96% of USPTO employees are enrolled in a telework program - 12,894 in all.
* 11,560 of those work from home 5 days a week; 1,220 teleworkers work from home 1-4 days per week.
* Total trademark teleworkers: 1,118
* -99.91% of eligible trademark positions are teleworking
* Total patent teleworkers: 9,977
* -95.58% of eligible patent positions are teleworking.
https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/TAR_2023.pdf<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/TAR_2023.pdf__;!!KDBJ75Mt!dI6VoD7-P47YZnpYuCEX23YIorR0KcjgYgfPfKwxVi8_UXgSkNpewW_8Ipvzdd3luxUtjZz5WBAjZXzhuib_XEWCLSII$>
On Tue, Jan 21, 2025 at 1:13 PM Laura Geyer via E-trademarks <e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com>> wrote:
The important thing is that for many of these Executive Orders, many of which are either hilariously unconstitutional or violate any one of a number of existing laws that can’t be changed this way, the jury will be out for a bit on whether this or that one is enforceable. The remote work one is, I understand from friends and relations, being challenged by the unions for the moment.
Speaking as someone who is married to, friends with, related to, and surrounded by good and faithful government employees, we’re all watching to see which of the straight-up pointlessly abusive/vexatious (and entirely unrelated to “efficiency” as we all know, because the “professionals” brought on board to make these recommendations or changes like to say the inside part out loud) are actually going to stick.
Will their pensions be, in fact, cut or new requirements be imposed that add years to planned retirement? Will remote work be ended and how widespread will that enforcement be? Will it be like last time when mass numbers of employees in certain targeted agencies had their places of work moved thousands of miles away, again, as was enunciated at the time, to force people to retire or quit unless willing to up sticks and relocate to the middle of nowhere? I’ve got a card with a running list of the changes about to be or promised to be inflicted on federal employees (again, many of which are intentionally abusive and have no other goal or purpose) so I can keep up with it. It’s insanity.
But what else could one have expected? When people tell you who they are, you gotta believe them.
Laura Talley Geyer | Of Counsel
ND Galli Law LLC
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From: E-trademarks <e-trademarks-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:e-trademarks-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com>> On Behalf Of Rick Bigelow via E-trademarks
Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2025 10:19 AM
To: For trademark practitioners. This is not for laypersons to seek legal advice. <e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com>>
Cc: Rick Bigelow <bigelowpatentlaw at gmail.com<mailto:bigelowpatentlaw at gmail.com>>
Subject: Re: [E-trademarks] PTO abandoning remote work?
EXTERNAL EMAIL
I've received emails from examiners on Saturdays and Sundays which tells me they were working remotely. If they were in the office, the emails probably would not have been sent until Monday.
I think remote working can be a plus if managed correctly. My daughter was hired as a VP for an international company full time work remotely.
On Tue, Jan 21, 2025 at 10:15 AM Michael D. Steger via E-trademarks <e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com>> wrote:
I don’t think they have offices for anywhere close to all of the examiners.
My brother in law is an attorney for another agency, and his section has not had offices for a several years, so there is no “office” for them to go back to work.
Mike Steger
From: E-trademarks <e-trademarks-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:e-trademarks-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com>> On Behalf Of Kevin Grierson via E-trademarks
Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2025 10:09 AM
To: For trademark practitioners. This is not for laypersons to seek legal advice. <e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com>>
Cc: Kevin Grierson <kgrierson at cm.law<mailto:kgrierson at cm.law>>
Subject: [E-trademarks] PTO abandoning remote work?
Saw a post from Professor Dickson yesterday about Trump’s executive order ending remote work for federal employees. Seems to be some wiggle room in it, but wow, aren’t there a ton of examiners working remotely? I can’t imagine all of them moving to DC.
https://www.npr.org/2025/01/20/nx-s1-5268852/trump-telework-executive-order-federal-workers<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.npr.org/2025/01/20/nx-s1-5268852/trump-telework-executive-order-federal-workers__;!!KDBJ75Mt!dI6VoD7-P47YZnpYuCEX23YIorR0KcjgYgfPfKwxVi8_UXgSkNpewW_8Ipvzdd3luxUtjZz5WBAjZXzhuib_XOjaQQSI$>
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