Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, today we seek to correct a technical and unintentional mistake in the trademark laws that could result in inadvertent abandonment for trademark owners who registered under our international agreement on trademarks, which is called the Madrid Protocol. At the expiration of their trademark registration term, trademark owners are required to submit affidavits to the United States Patent and Trademark Office stating that they have continuously met the statutory requirements of use in commerce or, alternatively, excusable nonuse. {time} 1815 Such affidavits are essential to maintain current trademark registrations and to clear the register of inactive trademarks. However, due to a technical mistake in the Lanham Act, our trademark laws unintentionally prevent trademark owners who file these affidavits for registering extensions under the Madrid Protocol from having the same rights as other U.S. trademark owners. Compliance with regulations should not reduce the rights of trademark owners. Today, we will harmonize our laws with the Madrid Protocol so that this particular injustice no longer occurs. Additionally, this legislation gives the Director of the USPTO discretion to allow applicants to correct good-faith and harmless errors that otherwise would have severe and unreasonable intellectual property ramifications.…”