PRESS RELEASE #99-1T November 9, 1999 Contact: Brigid Quinn Kim Byars 703-305-8341 Patent and Trademark Office Updates Trademark Electronic Application System Facilitating Ease of Electronic Filing The Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has updated its Web-based Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS). TEAS allows Trademark filers to fill out an application form and check it for completeness over the Internet. More than 23,000 applicants have used TEAS successfully to file their Trademark applications since this service went on line October 1998. The updates to the system, some of which result from the implementation of the Trademark Law Treaty, provide TEAS filers automatic alerts when they leave important fields blank on an application. The validation function of the TEAS site will alert customers, by giving an "error" message, if they have not filled in one of the five (5) fields that are considered "minimum filing requirements" under the Trademark Law Treaty Implementation Act of 1998. For other fields that the PTO believes are important, but not mandatory, users will receive a "warning" message if the field is left blank. This warning is a courtesy, if non-completion was merely an oversight. If the users so choose, they may by-pass that "warning" message and validate the form (however, an "error" message cannot be by-passed). TEAS has two components. Using e-TEAS, a customer can submit an application directly to the trademark examining operation over the Internet, paying by credit card or through an existing PTO deposit account. Or, using PrinTEAS, the applicant can print out a completed application for mailing to the PTO, paying by check, money order or through a deposit account (credit card payment will be available for mailed applications at a later date). The TEAS site is available at the following URL: http://www.uspto.gov/teas/index.html. By April, 2000, the PTO plans to have all of its trademark forms available for direct submission over the Internet. The PTO is the Commerce Department's user fee-funded bureau that administers laws relevant to granting patents and registering trademarks; advises the Secretary of Commerce, the President of the United States, and the Administration on patent, trademark and copyright protection; and advises the Secretary of Commerce, the President of the United States, and the Administration on the trade-related aspects of intellectual property. Nearly 6 million patents for inventions have been issued since the first patent in 1790. Last year PTO issued 155,000 patents and registered 106,000 trademarks. ###