Trademarkia Post Pubcon Trademark Highlights

Trademarkia Blog: Nintendo Files Trademark Application for It's On Like Donkey Kong
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Last week, I went to Pubcon 2010, a Las Vegas Internet Conference about Search, Social Media, Internet Marketing and Website Operation. This conference was the epitome of ironic. Let me explain...

• Flew on Virgin Airlines...for the first time...to a conference that I have never attended before.
• 10th year anniversary of a conference that originally met in a pub, I probably didn't even understand the concept of alcohol back then.
• Lost my name badge in Vegas...sober.
• I have business cards with my twitter handles on them, however I couldn't attend some of the tweetups because of Las Vegas age restrictions at clubs.

Okay okay, all chides at my age. Yes, I was probably the youngest person in attendance, and yes it was intimidating, but who doesn't get a little nervous at these kind of events? I was very thankful for the opportunity to represent www.Trademarkia.com and learn from all the wonderful speakers and attendees. The first and hopefully not the last Pubcon!

Monday

• Ran into Tony Wright (@tonynwright) and Shilpa Nicodemus (@shilpanicodemus) of Wright IMC on the first day "tweetup". Tony spoke and moderated six Pubcon sessions! 
• Informed a few individuals that they received Office Action letter's on their trademarks...don't they have lawyers that are supposed to tell them?
• Personal note: Ate YUM sushi and watched a Cirque du Soleil show. 

Tuesday

• Learned about Raven Tools and other exhibitors at the Exhibit hall.
• Spoke Russian with Tim Ash (@tim_ash), author of Landing Page Optimization.
• Alan K’necht (@aknecht) gave me a signed copy of his book The Last Original Idea.

Wednesday

• Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) "Trends: Mobile, Social, Local, Real-time, HTML5" [Funny quote "If spam falls in the forest and no one sees it, did the spam show up on Google search results?"]
• Bought Unmarketing a book by Scott Stratten (@unmarketing).
• SEO Meatball Dinner with Greg Boser (@gregboser) and David Snyder (@davesnyder) of BlueGlass Interactive LLC.  Attendees: Scott Cowley (@scottcowley) of SEO.com,  Barbara Boser (@barbaraboser), Danielle Culmone (@dculmone) of Searchmetrics.com, Donna Snow (@snowwrite), Mike Ramsey (@niftymarketing), Linda S. (@i80equipment09). 
• Rode in a limousine for the first time EVER. 

Thursday

• Because I am a Dummy, I bought Search Engine Optimization for Dummies :D
• Tim Mayer Keynote: "The future of search is prediction and suggestion" i.e. Google Instant
• Sean Jackson from Copyblogger Media (@seanthinks) quoted Theodore Roosevelt, "There is no effort without error and shortcomings".
• Learned about Blekko, the new slashtag search engine.
• Started editing Facebook custom tabs for Trademarkia fan page. Added Deals and Services tabs.

Quick Tips...

• Just because your not an expert, doesn't make you any less qualified to attend, we are all here to learn!
• If you are a women, don't pack heels, pack shoes you KNOW you will be comfortable in for 10 hours. And perhaps 1-2 extra pairs of stockings in case yours' rip from all the walking...
• If you have a one sided bag/purse, SWITCH SIDES or else you may get blisters on the feet that holds the most work.
• If you are a coworker (*ahem* Cliff *ahem*) don't forget your toothbrush and floss
• If you are a klutz like me, don't lose your name badge!
• Don't forget to follow the #pubcon twitter stream!

Food For Thought...

1. A few people suggested I change my title from "Publicity and Media Relations" to something else. I can easily do that when this batch of business cards runs out, however I wear a lot of "hats" and it's hard to classify or constrain what I do... I do social media monitoring/marketing, content writing (blog, newsletter, press releases..), public relations,....what title fits all of that?
2. Is it just me or do a lot of popular pubcon speakers have really short names? I have three syllabules just in my FIRST name! "Maria" is probably the most popular name EVER, and "Orlova" is surprisingly common as well. And if you search for me, Google will try and ask you "Did you mean: marina orlova"? Thank you Google, I understand our names are SUPER similar, but I am not an etymologist, nor am I Hotforwords.

More reading...

*Quick Tip* Scott Cowley (@scottcowley) has great recaps of the events. Also SearchEngineLand.com has a big recap.

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Facebook Pubcon 2010 photo album.
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PubCon 2010 Itinerary - Trademarkia.com

Monday November 8, 2010
5:30pm-8:00pm	PubCon Kickoff Classic and Networking Reception
Tuesday November 9, 2010
07:30am 08:45am	Continental Breakfast for Full Pass Attendees
08:45am 9:00am	Conference Introduction by Brett Tabke
09:00am 09:45am	Kickoff Keynote with David Pogue of New York Times
10:00am 11:15am	Reputation Management: Monitoring Your Brand Online
11:30am 12:45pm	Advanced Twitter: Apps, Services, and API Trends
12:30pm 1:30pm	Networking Lunch For All Gold Pass Attendees
1:30pm 2:45pm	Proactive Reputation Management
2:55pm 4:10pm	Twitter & Social Media from the PR Experts
4:15pm 5:30pm	Foursquare & Gowalla - Geo Location Marketing
Wednesday November 10, 2010
07:30am 08:45am	Continental Breakfast for Full Conference Attendees
08:45am 9:00am	Daily Introduction by Brett Tabke
09:00am 09:45am	Keynote Panel - Social Media Leading Edge
10:15am 11:30am	The Convergence of Social Media & Search
11:30am 12:45pm	Emerging Media and Technologies - Social Media and Affiliates
12:30pm 1:30pm	Networking Lunch For All Gold Pass Attendees
1:30pm 2:45pm	Facebook Marketing
3:15pm 4:20pm	Social Media, Press Relations, & Brand Management
04:20pm 05:30pm	Super Session : Search Engines and Webmasters - Bing - Google - Instant
Thursday November 11, 2010
08:00am-08:45	Continental Breakfast for Full Pass Conference Attendees
08:45am 9:00am	Daily Introduction by Brett Tabke
09:00am 09:45am	Morning Keynote by Tim Mayer
10:15am 11:30am	Convergence of Online Marketing and Analytics
11:30am 12:45pm	Instant Analytics Vendors and Package Implementation
12:30pm 1:30pm	Networking Lunch For All Gold Pass Attendees
1:30pm 2:45pm	Social Media Measurement and Signals
3:15pm 4:20pm	Legal Issues of Domain Names and Trademarks
04:20pm 05:30pm	Social Media Pay Day

Thursday Night Roundup: Edition 6 - Techmarkia.com launching November 1st

Read the latest Trademarkia Blog post : Grilled Cheesus! its a Trending Twitter Topic!
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TechMarkia official launch November 1, 2010.

Welcome to TechMarkia.   We are planning on our official launch on November 1, 2010.   Until then, we are posting test articles and refining our blog.   What we are creating is a new online news publication that will cover the hottest Internet startups.  Our site will be different than TechCrunch and Mashable because we are going to cover the people who make the Internet progress from a human perspective.   In full disclosure to our readers, By way of background, we are a team of successful Internet entrepreneurs in Mountain View who created the website Trademarkia.com (http://www.trademarkia.com). Trademarkia is a search engine for trademarks that is refreshed daily with the latest trademarks of the hottest Internet companies. In our first year after launching Trademarkia in September 2009, more than 3000 news publications and websites have linked to us based on information of upcoming product changes gleaned from recent trademark filings of companies such as Google, Twitter, Apple, Facebook, and others published first on Trademarkia. We also now attract millions of page views each month and tens of thousands of readers each day. In addition, we have also become profitable with no venture funding through a unique revenue model providing advertising space to law firms.

What we now seek to do in TechMarkia (not to be confused with our primary company Trademarkia described in the previous paragraph) is to create our very own online news publication covering the most innovative and exciting Internet companies in Silicon Valley and around the world through original journalism and research. This new publication will be independent of our search engine, and should not rely on, or quote back Trademarkia as a primary source of news.  We are creating a new online news publication focused around hot Internet startups in Silicon Valley. TechMarkia will cover interesting startups in the categories centered around the Internet (social media, ecommerce, mobile apps, search engines etc). We want to develop a unique writing style, one that is funny, interesting, and sometimes controversial.

Particularly, in addition to covering latest innovative Internet startups, we want to cover the stories that other leading Internet blogs (e.g., TechCrunch, Mashable, VentureBeat) may not cover. For example, the cupcake stand next to Facebook headquarters, or the experience of an organic chef at the Googleplex, or the interview/success story on the impressive weight loss of the former CEO of LinkedIn, or the rationale of the liberal and conservative aspects of a founder of Paypal who is now a venture capitalist, or the perspectives of incoming freshman computer science students at Stanford on their vision of the future of the Internet. We want to remain neutral and objective and unlike ValleyWag, we don’t want to go out of our way to flame. We want to cover the Silicon Valley from a human perspective.

In other words, we want to focus on the people, the cult, soul, heart, and personality that is Silicon Valley through original, on the ground, grassroots journalism.  Thank you for reading us early, and tell your friends..   Raj, Liz, Maria, and Bill. The Founding TechMarkia team.

Did you know? USPTO status "Non-Final Action - Mailed"

What does "Non-Final Action -  Mailed" mean?

A Non-Final Office Action is a Letter prepared by an Examining Attorney of the United States Trademark Office after reviewing the application for the first time. A time limit to respond to the Office Action is usually within 6 months from the mailing date noted on the Office Action unless otherwise mentioned.

In other words, The United States Patent and Trademark Office cannot at this time register the trademark application. [Please note, this is not a an outright rejection] They are requesting further information, evidence and/or proof in order to move forward with the trademark registration process. 

Popular Misconception:

1.  "This isn't a big deal..." Yes it is! Look below!!

Is this Status update important, do I have to follow up with anything?

Yes, this status update is VERY important. If you do not respond to the USPTO within the 6 month deadline period, your trademark application will become abandoned!


Why Trademarks Go Abandoned because of an Office Action Letter:

1. Top Reason They simply miss the letter...unfortunately the USPTO doesn't send you friendly reminders :(
2. The trademark applicant does not know what an Office Action Letter is...or what to do with it. So they let the trademark application go expired.  
3. A trademark applicant reads the letter, gets confused by the legal formalities, and think the USPTO rejected their application, so they do not bother to even try responding to the letter.

If this happens to you, please consult an expert trademark attorney to assist you!

Click here, to go back to the menu and find other explanations of common USPTO status's.

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Read the latest Trademarkia Blog Posts here:

International House of Pancakes vs. Prayer IHO(Pancakes) vs. IHO(Prayer)

National Trademark Expo 2010

Did you know? USPTO status "New Application: Record Initialized Not Assigned to an Examiner"

What does "New Application: Record Initialized Not Assigned to an Examiner" mean?

The United States Patent and Trademark Office, may take about a year to fully register a trademark, during which time the trademark application goes through a series of steps, and this status informs the applicant of the first step.

Popular Misconceptions:

1.  "I have a Serial Number so that means I have a registered trademark!" Not exactly.  An assigned Serial Number indicates that you have initiated an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. All properly submitted trademark applications begin with having a "record initialized" with the USPTO. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that they will receive U.S. federal registration in the end, the USPTO is simplyacknowledging the existence of the trademark application. 
• *Note* A trademark with this status, is not 'done' becoming registered with the USPTO.
• *Note* Only a "Registered" status means that you have a registered U.S. federal trademark with the USPTO.
2. "Not assigned to an Examiner?? When will they start reviewing it?!" Don't worry and don't fret, the USPTO must first log the trademark application into their system before they can assign it to a trademark examiner for review. That is normally the next step.
• *Note* If you use the paper filing method, it may take 2 weeks to receive a serial number.

Is this Status update important, do I have to follow up with anything?

Yes, this status is meaningful in the sense that it informs the trademark applicant that the USPTO has received their trademark application and assigned a serial number. However, it is simply a notice to you, and does not require any follow up at the time.

• You can use the ™ symbol to stand for your brand name in commerce. 

Click here, to go back to the menu and find other explanations of common USPTO status 

(See latest filed trademarks with the US. Patent and Trademark Office directly on the Trademarkia homepage!)

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Read the latest Trademarkia Blog Post here: How the West was won USC vs. USC

See the Trademarkia Team in Washington, DC for the 2010 International Trademark Association Admin Conference!

USPTO Status's Explained

Look out for a blog posts this week about common USPTO status updates, what they are, and why they may or may not be important to you.

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This is a menu post to find all of the individual blog posts hyperlinked to each other:
(No link, means that it has not been posted yet, but will be)

New Application - Record Initialized Not Assigned to Examiner

Non-Final Action - Mailed

(See latest filed trademarks with the US. Patent and Trademark Office directly on the Trademarkia homepage!)

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Read the latest Trademarkia Blog Post's here:
Apple Needs a Lesson in Deja Vu
Is the USPTO an "enemy" for Facebook?
Trademarkia attends TechCrunch Discrupt 2010
Twitter Won't Let You Fly Away With It's Bird

Updated Disclaimer at the bottom of the blog site.

Please take some time to read the updated disclaimer at the bottom of the site.

As of 10/4/2010, this is what it reads: (subject to change)

The information provided in the content of this blog is not legal advice, but publicly available information, provided in an easier to understand format. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors (be they the blog owner or a guest writer) and not necessarily that of Trademarkia, or it's representatives. The blog owner is not an intellectual property attorney, or a legal professional of any practice and thus blog content should only be interpreted as self-help advice, not legal advice. Trademarkia.com is not a substitute for an attorney or law firm. Users are encouraged to discuss legal concerns with attorneys with whom they have a prior relationship. Blog content is subject to change at any time.