As an intellectual property attorney, Tuesdays are very exciting for me! This is because Tuesdays are the day that patents are issued and trademarks are registered. Also, Tuesday is the day that trademarks are published in the Official Gazette for opposition.
Opposition is a process where the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) publishes the trademark that the applicant wishes to register. The trademark is open to the public for 30 days and during that time, anyone can file an opposition to the registration of the trademark. Typically, this would be done by a trademark owner that believes that the trademark application being published is too close to their registration.
The opposition process is unusual in that the USPTO has already determined that the trademark is allowable. Because trademarks identify the source of goods and services, the USPTO wants to give other trademark owners the opportunity to review all trademark applications to make sure that there isn’t anything “confusingly similar” to their trademark, which would interfere with their ability to prevent confusion in the market place.
In some cases, a Trademark Examining Attorney might not deem another trademark as likely to cause confusion, but the trademark owner might be a bit more sensitive to a trademark application that is somewhat close to theirs.
I have never been able to find out why trademarks register on Tuesdays or why patents issue on Tuesdays, but I think it is because Mondays are often federal holidays, so the government decided on Tuesday as the day for issuing patents and registering trademarks.
In an interesting turn of events, the USPTO will stop sending out paper copies of registered trademarks and is also expected to stop sending out paper copies of issued patents. This is expected to speed up the process of issuing the trademarks and patents. Nonetheless, even without paper copies, I will always get excited on Tuesdays for all of the trademarks and patents that I have worked hard to obtain for my clients!
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