Sams Presents TTAB Efficiency Initiative

John Welch writes in his TTABlog that U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Chief Administrative Judge J. David Sams presented the 2005 Midwest IP Institute with several initiatives that the TTAB is currently considering in an effort to make TTAB inter partes practice more efficient and effective:

• Mandatory initial disclosures
• Accelerated case resolution
• Mandatory telephone conference before filing an unconsented motion
• TTAB decisions and orders by e-mail rather than paper
• Service by e-mail
• Service of opposition on applicant