Revised TTAB rules published, some take effect August 31, others November 1August 1, 2007

As noted last week, the revised TTAB rules were published in today's Federal Register. The final rules are somewhat different than those proposed last January. Some of the new rules include:

  • Opposers/Petitioners will serve copies of the notice of opposition or cancellation petition on the opposing party directly, rather than having the TTAB send out the papers [Revised 37 C.F.R. § 2.105]
  • Adoption of mandatory disclosure requirements, similar to those in Federal Rule 26(a)(1) [Revised 37 C.F.R. § 2.120(a)]
  • Requirement for a discovery conference, that may include participation by a TTAB attorney upon request of a party [Revised 37 C.F.R. § 2.120(b)]
  • Discovery requests may not be sent out by a party until that party has made its initial disclosures [Revised 37 C.F.R. § 2.120(c)]
  • Entry of the TTAB standard protective order in all cases, unless the parties agree to a different order, or one party moves for entry of a different order and it is granted [New 37 C.F.R. § 2.116(g)]

Notably absent from the revised rules was the initially-proposed reduction in the number of interrogatories from 75 to 25.

Several of the new rules, including the rules relating to service of notices of opposition and petitions to cancel and entry of the standard TTAB protective order, take effect the end of this month.

To read the full notice, click here.

The TTABlog provides additional commentary here.

Update (8/21): The TTAB has posted a chart summarizing the revisions on its website here.

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