May 02, 2000
#00-27

SEMIFINALIST IN HARVARD GOVERNMENT INNOVATIONS AWARD PROGRAM

USPTO NAMED SEMIFINALIST IN HARVARD GOVERNMENT INNOVATIONS AWARD PROGRAM

PRESS RELEASE

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has been named as a semifinalist in the Innovations in American Government Awards competition sponsored by the Ford Foundation, and administered by Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in partnership with the Council for Excellence in Government.

USPTO is being recognized for the Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS). 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 .

"The USPTO is very pleased to be considered for this most prestigious award," notes Q. Todd Dickinson, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Dickinson continues, "USPTO’s TEAS system is being recognized as an innovative customer service tool and something that we are using as our part in reinventing government."

Finalists will be named in early September 2000, with the ten winners being announced on October 13, 2000. Each winner will receive a $100,000 award from the Ford Foundation. The remaining fifteen finalists will receive $20,000.

USPTO, a user fee-funded agency of the United States, within the Department of Commerce, administers laws relevant to granting patents and registering trademarks. The Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office advises the Secretary of Commerce and other Federal departments and agencies on intellectual property policy matters. Over 6 million patents have been issued since the first patent in 1790. Last year USPTO issued 161,000 patents and registered 104,000 trademarks.

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