USPTO Performance and Accountability Report - U.S. Patent and ...

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MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
A patent drawing of an inline roller skate placed on the left-hand side
of a child wearing inline roller skates.
national applications filed under the Patent Cooperation
Treaty (PCT). The patent process includes
performing an administrative review of newly-filed
applications, publishing pending applications, issuing
patents to successful applicants, and disseminating
issued patents to the public.
The Trademark Organization. The Trademark organization
registers marks (trademarks, service marks,
certification marks, and collective membership
marks) that meet the requirements of the Trademark
Act of 1946, as amended, and provides notice to the
public and businesses of the trademark rights
claimed in the pending applications and existing
registrations of others. The core process of the
Trademark organization is the examination of applications
for trademark registration. As part of that
process, examining attorneys make determinations
of registrability under the provisions of the Trademark
Act, which includes searching the electronic
databases for any pending or registered marks that
are confusingly similar to the mark in a subject application,
preparing letters informing applicants of the
attorney’s findings, approving applications to be
published for opposition, and examining statements
of use in applications filed under the Intent-to-Use
provisions of the Trademark Act.
Domestically, the USPTO provides technical advice
and information to executive branch agencies on IP
matters and trade-related aspects of IP rights. Internationally,
the USPTO works with foreign governments
PERFORMANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY REPORT: FISCAL YEAR 2012
to establish regulatory and enforcement mechanisms
that meet international obligations relating to the
protection of IP.
The performance information presented in this report
is the joint effort of the Under Secretary‘s office, the
Patent organization, the Trademark organization, the
Office of the Administrator for Policy and External Affairs,
and the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO).
Our People
T. Markey celebrates the National
Trademark Expo on October 14, 2011.
At the end of FY 2012, the USPTO work force (Figure 2)
was composed of 11,531 federal employees
(including 7,935 patent examiners and 386 trademark
examining attorneys).