[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 170 (Tuesday, September 5, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60667-60668]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-19000]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Patent and Trademark Office
[Docket No. PTO-T-2023-0037]
Requiring Identity Verification for Attorney-Sponsored Accounts
AGENCY: United States Patent and Trademark Office, U.S. Department of
Commerce.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
announces that beginning on January 20, 2024, all existing and new
attorney support staff with an attorney-sponsored USPTO.gov account
will be required to verify their identity to access trademark filing
systems. The USPTO is making this change after discovering that some
U.S.-licensed attorneys have sponsored accounts for individuals who are
not directly supervised attorney support staff, and that many of these
sponsored accounts appear to be shared by multiple foreign agents and
attorneys. These actions violate the Trademark Verified USPTO.gov
Account Agreement (Agreement).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Robert Lavache, Office of the Deputy
Commissioner for Trademark Examination Policy, USPTO, at 571-272-5881.
You can also send inquiries to [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In late 2019, as part of the USPTO's
continuing efforts to protect the integrity of the U.S. trademark
register, and to better protect its customers from scams and other
fraudulent activities related to the trademark register, the USPTO
began requiring customers to create a USPTO.gov account to access and
submit electronic trademark forms. This enabled the USPTO to monitor
trademark filing behavior and aided in enforcing the USPTO Trademark
Rules of Practice regarding submissions in trademark matters. On August
6, 2022, the USPTO began requiring existing and new account holders who
occupy one of the appropriate user roles, including owner, U.S.-
licensed attorney, Canadian attorney, or Canadian agent, to verify
their identity. See Trademarks USPTO.gov Account ID Verification
Program (87 FR 41114). The USPTO also offered a user role for sponsored
attorney support staff to establish USPTO.gov accounts when sponsored
by a supervising U.S.-licensed (or a reciprocally recognized Canadian)
attorney, and at the time did not require identity verification for
sponsored support staff accounts. See 87 FR 41114.
Since establishing the sponsored staff user roles, the USPTO has
discovered that some U.S.-licensed attorneys have sponsored accounts
for individuals who are not directly supervised attorney support staff,
which violates the Agreement that applies to all USPTO.gov account
holders. Many of these sponsored accounts appear to be used by multiple
foreign agents and attorneys who file thousands of trademark
applications involving violations of the USPTO's Trademark Rules of
Practice, including the rules on signatures and certifications. Because
the sponsored account user role has been subject to abuse that has
undermined the integrity of the trademark register and such abuse can
be significantly curtailed by requiring identity verification of
sponsored account holders, the USPTO will now require all existing and
new attorney support staff who are USPTO.gov account holders to verify
their identity. On October 14, 2023, the USPTO will make identity
verification available to attorney support staff account holders. It
will become mandatory for such account holders on January 20, 2024.
Requiring identity verification of sponsored accounts will help enforce
the ``one person, one account'' rule, better enable the USPTO to
restrict non-attorneys from submitting trademark filings, and prevent
rule violations by filing entities and other unauthorized users. It
will also allow the USPTO to better track and eliminate the use of
sponsored accounts created for unsupervised use by non-attorney
entities.
Trademark applicants and registrants, or their attorneys and
support staff, must register for and use a USPTO.gov account to access
and submit trademark application and maintenance filings with the
USPTO. Users of a USPTO.gov account and any other USPTO web page or
system are required to comply with the Terms of Use for USPTO web
pages. Further, to file trademark documents electronically, users must
have their identities verified, and are further bound by the Agreement.
A verified account can only be connected to one USPTO.gov trademark
account.
Once qualified U.S.-licensed attorneys have a trademark verified
USPTO.gov account, they may sponsor the USPTO.gov accounts of directly
supervised support staff. Attorneys who abuse the terms of sponsorship
may have their sponsorship privileges--and potentially their own
verified accounts--revoked. However, under the current system, support
staff can simply create new accounts using unverified information and
seek attorney sponsorship again, sometimes by the same attorney.
Requiring identity verification of sponsored accounts will allow the
USPTO to consistently enforce the Agreement and ensure that a user of a
sponsored account cannot create multiple accounts or create a new
account and again be sponsored.
The following examples demonstrate the impact of the problems
caused by the inappropriate use of sponsored accounts. In one instance
of abuse, an attorney sponsored more than 30 different accounts used by
individuals not under their direct supervision, and perhaps not even
personally known to the attorney. In another example, an attorney
sponsored multiple accounts for use by non-attorney trademark
preparation or filing entities, which are not authorized to practice
law, file submissions for clients, or represent parties before the
USPTO in trademark matters. Several of these accounts have also been
connected to known scams that have defrauded many trademark applicants.
Each of these behaviors violates the terms of the Agreement to which
each of these attorneys consented. In addition, some law firms are
creating institutional accounts that appear to be intended for use by
multiple people under generic names such as ``Admin Support.'' This
practice impedes the ability of the USPTO to maintain an accurate
filing history and violates the Agreement, even if no improper
activities are intended.
Under the revised procedures, both existing and new sponsored
attorney support staff USPTO.gov account holders will need to verify
their identity, using either the electronic or paper process, to access
the Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS). Identity
verification will become available on October 14, 2023, for attorney
support staff account holders to verify their identities. Existing
unverified sponsored attorney support
[[Page 60668]]
staff USPTO.gov accounts will remain active, but will not be able to be
used to access or submit trademark forms beginning on January 20, 2024,
when identity verification will become mandatory for all users. As of
January 20, 2024, only verified account holders will be able to access
and submit trademark forms.
The USPTO reminds attorneys that 37 CFR 11.503 establishes duties
with respect to the supervision of non-practitioner assistants, and 37
CFR 11.505 forbids a practitioner from assisting in the unauthorized
practice of law.
Katherine K. Vidal,
Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of
the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
[FR Doc. 2023-19000 Filed 9-1-23; 8:45 am]
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