Trademark Law

My new favorite TTAB website - TTAB ACROSS THE BOARD

By Ryan Gile

Over this past weekend, I stumbled across TTAB ACROSS THE BOARD. This may be old news for some, but I had never heard of it and I think the website is a must-know for TTAB practitioners ? and will soon become their favorite TTAB related website (with the exception of TheTTABlog® of course).

As most TTAB practitioners know, filings for TTAB opposition or cancellation proceedings are electronically available through the TTAB?s TTABVUE system. While there is a way to search final decision of the TTAB (link here), there is no current way to search all of the electronic filings filed in such opposition or cancellation proceedings . . . until now.

TTAB ACROSS THE BOARD, a personal project of its creator, attorney Chris Shiplett, is a searchable database of TTAB case status information and TTAB filings that is synchronized nightly with the TTAB?s records. Of course, the search function is only as good as the underlying documents ? and searchability will depend on whether the PDF files filed in TTAB proceedings have readable text or are scanned in. Nonetheless, it does appear to fill in a hole where one existed (and which surprisingly the TTAB itself never bothered to implement itself ? even though it would probably be in the best position to have done so).

The website also allows registered users to put cases on a ?watch list? and even an RSS feed for true TTAB junkies that need to know about every single filing with the TTAB filing when it happens. The website is currently free (and hopefully can stay that way although I would imagine that the creator would appreciate some sponsorships to help defray the cost of what could soon become a popular database). Mr. Shiplett is currently seeking feedback on his website so give it a try and e-mail him with your thoughts and comments.

Full post as published by Las Vegas Trademark Attorney on June 03, 2009 (boomark / email).