[E-trademarks] PTO abandoning remote work?

Tue Jan 21 19:23:16 UTC 2025

Also, for anybody not familiar:

The word "telework" perhaps tends to bring to mind a situation where
there's a physical building that can house all of the employees but where
(at least some of) the employees may have the option of working from
elsewhere.

The USPTO has no such building.

If all of the employees were required physically to come to Alexandria,
there'd be nowhere for (most of) them to work.

Sincerely,

Ed Timberlake
*Board Certified Specialist in Trademark Law
<https://www.nclawspecialists.gov/for-the-public/find-a-board-certified-specialist/results/detail/?id=29473>*

*Timberlake Law* <http://timberlakelaw.com/>
Chapel Hill, NC

Schedule a call on Clarity <https://clarity.fm/edtimberlake>
ed at timberlakelaw.com
919.960.1950

On Tue, Jan 21, 2025 at 2:16 PM Mark Kaufman via E-trademarks <
e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com> wrote:

> 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
>
> Email:  kaufman at kaufmankahn.com
>
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> *From:* E-trademarks <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>
> *Cc:* Rachael Dickson <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
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 21, 2025 at 1:13 PM Laura Geyer via E-trademarks <
> 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*
>
> 1200 G Street, N.W., Ste 800
>
> Washington, DC 20005
>
> Tel: (202) 599-9019 (direct)
>
> https://ndgallilaw.com/laura-geyer/
>
> https://ndgallilaw.com/
>
>
>
> *From:* E-trademarks <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>
> *Cc:* Rick Bigelow <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> 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> *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>
> *Cc:* Kevin Grierson <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
>
>
>
> *Kevin Grierson <https://www.culhanemeadows.com/attorney/kevin-grierson/>*
>
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> --
>
> Richard L. Bigelow
> Registered Patent Attorney
>
> Certified Patent Valuation Analyst
> 43 Nuangola Ave.
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