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The TTAB fell just shy of meeting its pendency
goal for FY 2006. The goal was to issue final decisions and decisions
on trial motions, on average, within ten weeks of the time they were submitted
for decision. During FY 2006, the TTAB issued decisions, on average, in
10.9 weeks, although, for the last half of the fiscal year, the TTAB was
nearly at goal, issuing decisions, on average, in 10.3 weeks. In FY 2006,
the TTAB added an additional option to its suite of electronic filing
forms. Now, parties may file confidential documents using the TTAB’s
electronic filing system, with assurance that these documents will remain
accessible only to the TTAB and not to the public at large. For FY 2006,
91 percent of extensions of time to oppose were received and processed
electronically, as were 70 percent of notices of opposition and 68 percent
of petitions to cancel. During FY 2006, the TTAB launched a pilot program
to permit one of its administrative trademark judges to work full-time
from an alternate duty station in Dallas, Texas. The TTAB held several
electronic oral hearings in the electronic courtroom it shares with the
BPAI. The electronic courtroom permits parties to appear before the TTAB
and BPAI from remote videoconferencing locations. To provide more legal
guidance to the trademark bar and trademark examining attorneys, in FY
2006 the TTAB issued 55 of its decisions as citable precedents, a substantial
increase over the number of citable decisions issued in recent years.
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