[E-trademarks] Trademark Center supposedly did get beta-tested!? a tester reports

[Carl Oppedahl]

A listserv member wrote to me privately to report having been a beta 
tester of Trademark Center.  Here is this person's report, provided to 
you with this person's permission, lightly edited to preserve anonymity.

> I definitely was a beta tester and I rarely am a beta tester so I had 
> no reason to doubt that I was in a beta test when I signed up through 
> a specific email or link from the USPTO that sought beta testers for a 
> new trademark application form.  When I signed up, probably about 9 
> months to a year before TC became mandatory, the recruitment campaign 
> for beta testers made clear that the application form was limited to 
> routine ITU, non-44 applications, i.e. no SR registration, no 
> certification or collective membership marks and I cannot recall if 
> multi-class filing was available or if we could freehand draft an ID.  
> I just recall that the constraints severely limited the opportunities 
> I had to test it.  I think I had only one client who would instruct me 
> to file applications that were suitable for the constraints of the 
> beta test.
>
> I remember after trying my first beta test application that the amount 
> of basic information I had to comb through to complete the application 
> was frustrating, time-consuming and it discouraged me from wanting to 
> try the beta test application again. I got my paralegal involved and 
> asked my paralegal to try it for a second application. That brought 
> about the next discouraging frustration – there was no way to save the 
> application for me to upload it and work on it like we did with TEAS. 
> I forget if we filed that application through the beta test or just 
> redid it in TEAS, but just like your other beta tester reporter told 
> you, I had enough of that beta software after 1-2 tries and realized I 
> should enjoy TEAS while it is still available.
>
> That was after my one phone interview. I also agree with that other 
> reporter that the interviewer apparently knew nothing about filing 
> trademark applications. I think I figured she was from some market 
> research company under contract with the USPTO.
>
> At some point later, I got word that the beta software had full 
> capabilities for an application form, i.e. Sec. 44 filings and 
> use-based filings so I tried to file an application based upon Sec. 
> 44(d) and ITU with a really long ID.  I had trouble getting the 
> application to email to the client and the link to work for the client 
> to open it and sign it. I tried the hand-sign method of execution and 
> that didn’t work either.
>
> I provided whatever feedback I could, but because there were only 
> limited opportunities to try the software for the myriad reasons 
> mentioned above, like limited capabilities and cumbersome processes 
> that discouraged its use, that probably limited the amount and 
> effectiveness of our feedback.