Foreign-domiciled trademark owners now need U.S. attorneys to prosecute their interests before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
The rule, effective August 3, also means that Canadian patent agents no longer can represent Candadian trademark applicants, registrants, or parties before the USPTO. Canadian trademark attorneys and agents can continue to represent their clients, but cannot correspond with the USPTO.
According to the USPTO, the change is intended to “maintain the accuracy and integrity” of the USPTO’s trademark registers. It ostensibly is in response to an increasing number of “inaccurate and possibly fraudulent submissions” made by foreign-domiciled parties.
The rule affects all USPTO filers and parties that are not domiciled in the United States. A “domicile” is a person’s home or an entity’s principal place of business where “its senior executives or officers ordinarily direct and control the entity’s activities.”
Requiring a USA attorney in this context seems awfully protectionist, but hopefully it will accomplish the stated goal. If it does, I’m ok with it.