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ARTICLE · 18 FEBRUARY 2022

USPTO 2021 Performance And Accountability Report

Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C.
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The USPTO's 2021 Performance and Accountability Report is chock full of information and data regarding USPTO operations.

United StatesIntellectual Property
John L. Welch
John L. Welch
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The USPTO's 2021 Performance and Accountability Report is chock full of information and data regarding USPTO operations. (pdf here). The report is slightly more than 250 pages long, so I will hit a few of the highlights regarding our favorite tribunal, the TTAB.

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Under the heading "CASE LAW DEVELOPMENTS: RECENT DECISIONS" (p. 21):

[T]he constitutionality of the appointment of the TTAB's ATJs was also called into question in Piano Factory Group v. Schiedmayer Celesta GmbH. Guided by the Supreme Court's decision in Arthrex, the Federal Circuit held that the Director's broad supervisory authority over TTAB decisions, together with the absence of any statutory limits on the composition of TTAB panels, indicates that the ATJs are inferior officers under the Appointments Clause and thus are not required to have been appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The court also noted that the TMA further confirmed the Director's previously implicit

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