Good afternoon. I am Michelle Sarah King. I am the intellectual property team lead, the senior international trade specialist and the stop fakes team lead at the international trade administration in the United States department of commerce. And you are listening to Ip Fridays. Hello, and welcome to this episode of Ip Fridays.
Our names are Ken Suzanne and Ralph Cl, and this is the podcast dedicated to intellectual property, it does not matter where you are from in house or private practice, novice or expert. We will help you stay up to date with current topics in the fields of trademarks, patents, design and copyright. Discover useful tools, and much more. My c host cancels then, and I are welcoming you to episode 154 of our podcast Ip Fridays. Today's interview interview guest is Michelle Sarah King.
She is intellectual property team lead the stop fake team lead and senior international trademark specialist at the international trade as administration, and we talk about the stop fake program in the Us. That she is in charge of. Before we jump into the interview, I have news for you, the United States patent trademark of director Kathy Vid vidal has published a director's blog on eleventh of July 2024.
Addressing the office current backlog of in trademark applications, which the latest Data showed to be over 280000 une examined applications. With it to over 25 months total tenancy for patents and then over 14 months total tenancy for trademarks. She said according to the offices recent notice of proposed rule milk on setting and adjusting patent fees, the present backlog is predicted to increase to 820000 by fiscal year 2026. And before decreasing to 207 hundred 80000 by 2029.
So the backlog will not really decreased in the next 5 years. Proceedings on registration for unitary effect requested by Russian patent holders to be stayed in view of the latest Eu sanctions against Russia. This precautionary measure decided by the president of the euro year European patent Office the Ep ipo on tenth of July 2024. Is taken pending further discussions with the Ep member states.
The enlarged board of appeal of the European patent office has received a new refer GG1 of 24 with decision t 04:39 of 22. Of 20 fourth of June 2024. A referral was made to the enlarged mode of pier, seeking to clarify the legal basis for interpreting patent claims for the purpose of assessing patent ability, whether and under which circumstances the description and figures may be taken into a count when interpreting a patent claim. And finally, they extent to which a patent can serve
as its own dictionary. So this will be a very decision to be made, for a lot of patent practitioners among our listeners. The German patent trademark office has updated their very helpful information pages for small and medium sized entities about intellectual property including help with strategy and funding opportunities from the Eu, a link is enclosed in the show notes. Now let's jump into the interview with Michelle Sara king. Today's interview guest is Michelle Sara king.
She is the intellectual property team lead and senior international trade specialist at the international Trade administration and also is overseeing the stop fix program, the inter agency stop fix program in the Us. Thank you for being on the show. Happy to be here. Thanks. Ralph? So, tell us what is the stop fix program of the Us government? And where does it come from what is the main goal? Tell
us more about it? The stop fix program was created by a presidential order in the Bush administration. Created as a as an opportunity to provide outreach and education about intellectual property to businesses of all sizes as well as consumers.
The name of the stop fake program is a little bit of a mis because it's focused primarily on education and out reach an engagement about an intellectual property, and it is not an enforcement mechanism per s. Though we do provide opportunities and to referral for issues of enforcement. The stop fix program is over 18 years
old. And it is created. It's a digital program with a website, stop face dot gov, and we do outreach an engagement, virtual webinars in person in road shows, speaking and industry events, and specialized business consultations for businesses of all sizes at at no charge. For our programs, we partner with various entities, including the Us export assistance centers, which is in every United States and created and as as part of the I... Of the international
trade administration. The international Trade administration was started over 40 years ago, by president Reagan as a it's a agency that's part of the Us department of Commerce with its own separate mission and goal with the focus on helping American companies export. As part of the stop fakes program, we work to provide information about intellectual property globally to help companies as they seek to export and as They seek to grow globally, providing outreach engagement,
education, and specialized guidance. We offer at no charge, specialized business consultations to businesses of all sizes, and we also receive information from consumers and others about issues within an intellectual property, and we provide guidance and referral services across the Us. Okay. Wow, that's very comprehensive and a lot tasks that you have in your hands, basically in the program, very interesting. So, how do you how how do people reach
you most? Do they do they reach you on twitch shows or do you get emails or phone calls? When they report problems, who is reporting these problems, is that mostly businesses or mostly consumers, what is your experience? Sure. So, previously, when the Internet was was less less popular. It started actually as a phone hotline. This stuff was the stop hotline line, and it has grown into a digital program. So we have a a digital website, WWW dot stop fakes dot gov, which is under
construction. It's constantly under construction, but we're working on a a full, full update of the of the website. And people reach us. We have an email box, stop fakes at trade dot gov where people report issues within intellectual property, and they also seek our advice and request specialized business consultations. At the same time, we received referrals almost daily from other other government agencies, and, colleagues and friends and other at other
agencies, including our stop fake partners. We have over 10 stop fake partners at Us g, agencies, but we receive referrals even from our own agency from the Us export assistance centers, which are in every state. So for example, a business may be working in an export center specific state and be encountering issues as they seek to export in in whatever country they seek export, and they they come to us for help and guidance about intellectual property as they seek to to export.
Most businesses as they seek to export and grow globally, create an intellectual property plan where they both are it Their they're intellectual property assets. They protect they work on protection of their intellectual property in every country. Where they seek to do business, and then they seek to both both apply for Ip protection and then enforce their protection as And as you know, Ip rights you is the brand owner's responsibility and to enforce their their own rights, and
you can get you... For every country an area where you wanna do business, you need to register and and apply for for rights. So, of course, there are programs to to apply for protection in in several countries. At the same time, and the... Those are explained on the Stop based website. We have country toolkit for for most countries. We have industry toolkit kits. We have snapshots.
We have some training videos as well. And then we we offer in person consultations and as well as we do live in person specialized business consultations. And virtually, every meeting we go to, and and and with our main program being the stop fakes road shows where we travel to a city or town, in collaboration with a Us expert assistance center,
we do a a half day program. We bring our inter agency program, part program partners, including Us pto, copyright office, Fbi, customs border and etcetera and do a program, and then in the afternoon, we offer the opportunity to have specialized business consultations, you can also meet with the copyright office to try it to, apply for a copyright registration or and, also, seek to, record your intellectual property. With Us customs of
border protection. Now the... Those opportunities are are rights protected in the Us as opposed to a global process, and then we have global resources on our website as well. Yeah. So I understand, you are targeting mostly businesses, but you also have consumers if they have questions. Right? Yes. Through our stop fakes at trade doc gov email we receive information from,
consumers and others. We assist and provide guidance about, notice and take down processes, and requests on, for e commerce sites, and we also, provide referrals to the national intellectual property right coordination center, which was created several years ago, which is an inter agency center that works on Ip enforcement and and address and researchers then addresses some of those issues. Michel, you you just talked about all these
different things you're offering. Like, for example, trainings and webinars and roadshow shows and industry guides and country guides and all these things. Is there 1 thing that yet, that is a very important tool for you, like like where you are where you see, most value for the people you are talking with? Sure. 1 of our newest... We have 2 particularly new resources that are are interest of
to businesses. 1 is our clean technology industry toolkit, which is a a guidance document that provides information about how to protect your intellectual property rights and programs that are offered by G inter agency, Partners and for intellectual property rights, and clean technology is obviously an industry that is growing with a lot of interest and we want to help support, grow and enhance the ability for companies to innovate and further
innovations to be protected. So we provide guidance on on how to do that in the Us. In a straightforward, short king concise concise guide. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That's cool. That's a new tool that you that you just launched. That's good. Maybe it's not a big secret that most fake products are still producing China. And, I see from your website, this is also 1 of 1 focus of the Stop fix program. You have a lot of resources about China also on your website.
How do you have business to defend themselves against fakes from China. Sure. China is 1 1 country where there are potential challenges within intellectual property. 1 of 1 of many countries where there's an intellectual property challenges, I would also point to the special 03:01 report, which, is issued the end of April, it was just issued that summarizes, countries and provides road roadmap to move forward with intellectual property protections, and it classified heights countries
from a... There's priority watch list and a watch list on China. We have a new guide, which we posted a China toolkit that helps businesses that wanna do work and collaborate with China, and it's a it's a great work... Resource that was created by 1 of our partners. And it helps businesses as they seek to do work and partner collaborate and do work in China. Right. Do you also in in this 03:01 report? Do you see that there's other countries that are also in a problem, let's say?
The countries that are on the priority watch list to become, the the top of the list for the Us Us government and work a partnering with them and developing Ip work plan. So the G inter agency then works, you know, hands on the ground to work with government officials and businesses and working and strengthening Ip frameworks in those countries. And it's a it's a process and where we're dedicated and committed to doing that work. Right. Okay. Well, it's a challenge.
A lot of our listeners are Ip professionals, and most of them come from the Us. What do you think is the 1 thing that they should take away from this interview, like the most important message that you want to send to them. The United States government is committed to helping businesses create and grow a strong intellectual property system globally. And we are committed to helping businesses grow and be successful and provide information, assistance and guidance about intellectual property.
And we are happy to speak at industry events and and support especially outreach to, small and medium sized enterprises and rural and underserved communities, etcetera. Just just a couple weeks ago, I spoke... We spoke... We did a road show at AHBC in Mississippi, and, we are focused on helping small and medium sized enterprises and and other other entities that that could use our help and these resources are free, and we provide specialized business consultations at no charge.
Simply, upon request to our office. That's helpful. A lot of our listeners are from in house in house professionals, Ip professionals from companies. So, if they don't already know your about your resources, then for sure they know now. So it's good. So where can they learn more about your stock fix program? The Stop fix website provides a a wealth of of resources on the digital website, which is WWW dot stop fakes dot gov. They can also email us at stop at trade dot or, email me, and I
my... And me or a member of my team will reach out and and be happy to meet with you. And assist you. I just saw that you have a new website at stop fax dot gov, tell me more about
this new website. We're we're very excited about our our new refresh stock based dot gov website, which is more mobile compatible with all refresh links and updated information, including links to the newest special 03:01 report, and tourist Markets link report, as well as, updated country toolkit kits and some new industry resources.
We encourage our readers to look at those resources, provide feedback to us and outreach if you're interested in a specialized business consult or if you would like the stop they seem to to speak at a in an industry event or at or think about potentially coming to your city or town for a stop fake. Thanks so much. Very excited about this new website and look forward to helping businesses grow globally with stronger Ip and helping to further support consumers.
So michelle. Thank you so much for being on Ip Fridays. I'm very grateful that you took your time here in Atlanta during the Ind annual meeting to chat with me. Thank you, Ralph. Look forward to working with you and the entire business and Ip community and strengthening Ip frameworks for all. To to help grow businesses and help further support consumers. Thank you so much. Thank you.
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The views expressed by the participants of this program are their own and do not represent the views of nor are they endorsed by their respective law firms? None of the content should be considered legal advice. The Ip Friday's podcast should not be cons as legal advice or legal opinion on any specific facts or circumstances. The contents of this podcast are intended for general informational purposes only and you are urged to consult your own lawyer on any specific legal questions.
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