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UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE TRADEMARK PUBLIC ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING Alexandria, Virginia Friday, August 28, 2009 ANDERSON COURT REPORTING 706 Duke Street, Suite 100 Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone (703) 519-7180 Fax (703) 519-7190 2 1 PARTICIPANTS: 2 JOHN B. FARMER 3 DAVID KAPPOS 4 LYNNE G. BERESFORD 5 ELIZABETH R. PEARCE 6 JAMES H. JOHNSON, JR. 7 MARY BONEY DENISON 8 ROBERT BUDENS 9 TIMOTHY LOCKHART 10 JEFFREY W. STORIE 11 HOWARD FRIEDMAN 12 DAVID SAMS 13 MARK OLECHOWSKI 14 JOHN OWENS 15 KAREN STROHECKER 16 MARK KRIEGER 17 MICHELLE PICARD 18 SHARON MARSH 19 20 * * * * * 21 22 ANDERSON COURT REPORTING 706 Duke Street, Suite 100 Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone (703) 519-7180 Fax (703) 519-7190 3 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 MR. FARMER: As far as how we're going 3 to proceed today, for those of you who are seeking 4 -- possibly can, and sometimes we can wrap things 5 up early, so we're going to try to do that, and 6 we're certainly not going to cut short any work 7 discussions. 8 The way I plan on doing things is going 9 through the schedule as we published it on the 10 USPTO web site. One thing that we've been trying 11 to do, and we eternally struggle to get better at, 12 is to make these meetings mainly discussion and 13 interaction, and because of that, what we have 14 asked all of our presenters to do today is to 15 limit their opening comments or opening monologue 16 to no more than one-fifth of the time that we have 17 allotted for that segment, and we can do that 18 because we've asked also that everyone give us 19 their written materials in advance, so we read 20 them in advance. 21 The informal arrangement that we reached 22 at the PTO at our last meeting was that we on TPAC ANDERSON COURT REPORTING 706 Duke Street, Suite 100 Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone (703) 519-7180 Fax (703) 519-7190 4 1 will try to get in the public meeting agenda at 2 least four weeks prior to the meeting, and then we 3 would ask that all written materials be provided 4 to us and put up on the USPTO web site at least 5 two weeks prior to the meeting. And we did pretty 6 well. We didn't get an A plus. Some of the 7 materials, I don't think, got up quite two weeks 8 out, but they should all be on the USPTO web site 9 now. And what we on TPAC have said is that we 10 promise to thoroughly read everything that's given 11 to us in advance so that we don't have to learn it 12 for the first time at the meeting, but instead we 13 can read in advance, the public can read in 14 advance, and thus, the meetings can be more 15 productive. 16 Because of that, here's how we'll sort 17 of flow through each of our topics. We'll have 18 opening comments, again, no more than one-fifth of 19 the time allotted by the person presenting from 20 the PTO. Then I will turn to any questions or 21 comments or discussions from TPAC members. 22 After that, I will go to any questions ANDERSON COURT REPORTING 706 Duke Street, Suite 100 Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone (703) 519-7180 Fax (703) 519-7190 5 1 or comments from folks who are here in our live 2 audience. And after that, any appropriate 3 questions or comments that come in from cyber 4 space. That can happen and we encourage it 5 because this meeting is being web cast, and 6 because folks watching over the web cast have the 7 ability to send in questions and comments to 8 [email protected]. Again, that's ask, a-s-k, 9 TPAC, T-P-A-C, @USPTO.gov. 10 Eventually the meeting transcript for 11 this meeting will be posted online. It comes out 12 to TPAC. Some folks read it over just to try to 13 make certain there's no mistranscription, and that 14 gets posted. We are short two members today, so 15 if you look on the table, you'll see we have two 16 fewer TPAC members than usual. And then we hope 17 to have those spots filled shortly. James Conley 18 and Jackie Leimer rotated off at the beginning of 19 August, and we understand those two spots are in 20 the process of being filled, and we look forward 21 to being back to full strength sometime soon. And 22 that pretty much wraps up my opening comments, and ANDERSON COURT REPORTING 706 Duke Street, Suite 100 Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone (703) 519-7180 Fax (703) 519-7190 6 1 it's perfect timing, because if you're ready, Mr. 2 Kappos. 3 David Kappos, our new Director, has just 4 joined us here. We are thrilled to have you here 5 on TPAC. There's been a lot of anticipation. And 6 I will say already that we on TPAC have noticed 7 that you've come out of the gate strong and we're 8 very appreciative for that, too. And so if it's 9 okay with you, I'm actually going to turn things 10 over to you for a few opening comments. 11 MR. KAPPOS: Okay. Thank you very much, 12 no problem at all. I'm happy to be here. My name 13 is Dave Kappos and I'm pleased to be joining you. 14 I recently started here at the United States 15 Trademark and Patent Office as the Director coming 16 in to try and help on both -- all patent and 17 trademark related operations. I'm very pleased to 18 be able to join you here for a while this morning, 19 and thanks, John, for putting me on the agenda and 20 giving me a chance to make some initial comments. 21 And while I won't take a lot of time, there are 22 some really important things that I feel it's ANDERSON COURT REPORTING 706 Duke Street, Suite 100 Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone (703) 519-7180 Fax (703) 519-7190 7 1 really very, very critical that we start out 2 talking about. The first one is, sort of just 3 getting right down to business, the financial 4 outlook, and, you know, sort of the situation, if 5 you will, as we enter financially the year 2010. 6 So everybody knows that FY 2009 has been 7 and continues to be a difficult one for us at the 8 USPTO, with fee receipts down significantly and 9 financial challenges that have forced us to take 10 all kinds of actions that are very similar to 11 actions taken in the private sector, the things 12 that everyone has had to do, right, including 13 stopping hiring and cutting back dramatically on 14 IT investments and the like. 15 2010, as we start the year, moving in, 16 you know, on October 1st, I suppose there's good 17 news and bad news, it's fair to say. The good 18 news is that it appears, at least at this point, 19 that our receipts, and this is mostly talking 20 about the patent side, have stabilized, and that's 21 a good thing, at least from what we can see at 22 this point. The bad news, if you will, is that ANDERSON COURT REPORTING 706 Duke Street, Suite 100 Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone (703) 519-7180 Fax (703) 519-7190 8 1 they tend to be significantly lower than they were 2 in 2008, and certainly at this point in 2008. 3 So, you know, as we enter financial year 4 2010, we're going to be very, very careful about 5 spending and we're going to be entering into an 6 extremely cautious posture, continuing not to be 7 able to invest in IT improvements, not to be able 8 to hire or do many of the other things we want to, 9 and it's the only prudent thing to do at this 10 point because we've got a budget to manage. 11 And as I think everyone in this room 12 knows, the USPTO is an entirely fee funded agency, 13 we do not draw on any public funds, so what the 14 user community pays and currently what they pay on 15 a year by year basis is what we have to work with, 16 with some slight modifications that Mark always 17 explains. So financial outlook, a very cautious 18 one moving into financial year 2010. 19 That being said, there was this 20 trademark fence legislation that everyone in the 21 trademark community knows about and is very, very 22 concerned about. And I commented on this before, ANDERSON COURT REPORTING 706 Duke Street, Suite 100 Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone (703) 519-7180 Fax (703) 519-7190 9 1 I'll comment again now. So that legislation, and 2 by the way, Congress did a wonderful job and was 3 extraordinarily helpful to us at putting a tool in 4 our hands that could ensure that we would not be 5 put in a position of having to furlough or even 6 having to get close to furloughing any employees, 7 and that's something that I hope we all share on 8 both the trademark and the patent side, that we 9 never want to be in a position of having to do 10 anything like that to our people here.