USPTO, U.S. Copyright Office to hold public roundtables for a joint study in January
The USPTO and the U.S. Copyright Office, conducting a joint study regarding the impacts of non-fungible token (NFT) technologies on intellectual property rights, law, and policy, have issued a Federal Register Notice requesting written public comments on these issues.
The FRN also announced there will be three public roundtables scheduled for January 2023—on January 10, 12 and 18. The USPTO and U.S. Copyright Office will hold three public roundtables focused, respectively, on copyrights, patents, and trademarks. The roundtables are not expected to address broad topics in cryptocurrency or decentralized systems generally, but rather only IP considerations as they relate to NFTs.
This joint study is being conducted pursuant to a request from the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on IP. Public input sought includes those from the IP and technology industries, and academia.
Public comments must be received no later than 11:59 p.m. ET January 9.
To submit a formal comment: federalregister.gov/documents/2022/11/23/2022-25211/study-on-non-fungible-tokens-and-related-intellectual-property-law-issues
New deadline: As of Dec. 3, 2022, trademark applicants have three months to respond to office actions issued during the examination of trademark applications filed under Sections 1 or 44. You can request one three-month extension per office action.
Office action response deadlines for applications filed under Madrid Protocol Section 66(a) are unchanged and continue to have a six-month response deadline. The new three-month deadline will go into effect for post-registration office actions on Oct. 7, 2023.
For more information, see “New deadline to respond to office actions for applications” webpage at USPTO.gov.
