| Introduction
Intellectual Property Publications
from the U.S. Government come from various sources, but most are produced
by the Department of Commerce which is the parent department for
the Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The MPEP, TMEP, TBMP (a.k.a.TTAB
manual) are all products of the USPTO. Publications such as the Code
of Federal Regulations (CFR) can be changed by new/changed departmental
rules, judicial rulings and by changes in the law., while the US Code (USC)
is updated based only on changes to our laws enacted by the U.S. Congress.
The USPTO includes certain sections of the USC and CFR relevant to IP Law
in the MPEP and TMEP.
This page answers the following questions:
We closely
monitor all changes that affect the following publications:
| 1. |
U.S. Code Title 17
(Copyrights), Title 35 (Patents) Title 15 (chap. 22 &
63, Trademarks) |
| 2. |
Manual of Patent Examining
Procedure (MPEP) |
| 3. |
Trademark Manual of Examining
Procedure (TMEP) |
| 4. |
Trademark Trial and Appeal
Board Manual (TBMP or TTAB Manual - USPTO prefers "TBMP" acronym) |
| 5. |
Title 37 of the Code
of Federal Regulations (37 CFR) |
| 6. |
Trademark Acceptable
Identification of Goods and Services Manual (TAIGSM) |
IP Data Corp. keeps in constant
contact with various offices inside the USPTO, and we receive several different
automated notifications from the U.S. Congress for publication updates
and revisions, but quite often,
even the offices responsible for these
publications are unsure of exact release dates for these changes. That
said, it is a
very important part of our job to keep you informed
and offer you the very latest publications and changes as we receive them.
Changes
to Publications come in 3 forms:
Minor Changes
or Revisions: |
One or more minor corrections
to a publication are issued by the responsible office, and this is usually
from 1 to 20 pages of changes (for manuals 750 to 2600 pages), and
they usually deal with one or two topics, or a collection of typographical
errors. These are sent out in pamphlet form for soft cover owners, and
page changes for 3 ring owners. For some publications, this type of change
can happen once, twice or even 3 times a year. |
| Major Revision: |
This is a change that generally
affects one or more whole chapters and could affect as many as 100 to 500
pages. On occasion, they may refer to a change as a Revision,
but it possibly affects the entire contents of the publication. For some
publications, this type of change can happen once or twice a year. |
| New Edition: |
These almost always change
major portions, and possibly the format of, the publication involved. The
entire contents of the manual have changed significantly and the entire
publication text must usually be changed. This rarely happens more often
than once a year, and with some manuals such as the TTAB Manual (TBMP),
this hasn't happened in over six years. |
How these changes affect
each of our publication formats and our update policy:
We offer most manuals in 3 Ring and Soft cover. Changes affect each
of these formats differently for obvious reasons. Here are our policies
and procedures for updates:
Soft Cover:
| Type of Change |
Manual Was Purchased
relative to change |
Cost of Update |
| Minor Changes or Revisions |
Within last year |
Cost + Shipping & Handling for
pamphlet |
| Major Revision or New Edition |
Within last 30 days |
Shipping & Handling Only for New Copy |
| Major Revision or new Edition |
30 Days to 6 months |
50% OFF cover price plus shipping and handling |
| Major Revision or new Edition |
6 Months to 1 year |
20% OFF cover price plus shipping and handling |
| Major Revision or new Edition |
Over 1 year |
10% OFF cover price plus shipping and handling |
Three Ring Binder:
| Type of Change |
Manual Was Purchased
relative to change |
Cost of Update |
Minor Changes or Revisions
25 pages or less |
Within last year |
Shipping & Handling Only for new pages or
pamphlet |
Minor Changes or Revisions
over 25 pages |
Within last year |
0.04 per printed page plus shipping and handling |
| Major Revision or New Edition |
Within last 30 days |
Cost + Shipping & Handling Only for New Text
Pages |
Major Revision or new Edition
(use your existing binder) |
30 Days to 1 year |
$0.04 per printed page plus shipping and handling |
Major Revision or new Edition
(Use your existing binder) |
Over 1 year |
$0.05 per printed page plus shipping and handling |
Major Revision or new Edition
(We supply a new binder) |
Over 1 year |
10% OFF the retail price plus shipping and handling |
Note: Our shipping
and handling costs are very reasonable. We do not add additional
charges beyond the cost of the materials to pack (box, labels, packing
materials) and the fees to actually ship products to you. We use UPS as
our primary ground and air delivery service.
Which
format is right for you (3 Ring or Soft Cover)?
Attorneys, agents and IP
Law Librarians have their preferences for which type of manual they prefer.
Each has certain advantages and disadvantages which we will list here to
help you decide which format is right for you, if you don't already have
a preference.
Soft Cover Advantages
-
Lower initial cost
-
Smaller size
-
Pages can't be removed or lost
-
Takes up less space on library shelf (especially true of
our new 6" x 9" series of manuals!)
|
Three Ring Advantages
-
Opens flat to read or study
-
Easier to update - whole text can be changed without purchasing
a new binder
-
Can be a lower cost of ownership over a long period of time
(depends on update frequency)
-
Pages can be removed for photocopying (but you can
always print high quality page copies from the CD).
|
Soft Cover Disadvantages
-
Minor change/revision requires separate pamphlet
-
Usually ships 2 to 3 weeks later than the 3 Ring updates
-
Major Revision or new Edition requires replacement of book
-
Difficult to photocopy some pages, but this is not really
a big disadvantage because you can always print from the CD that comes
with the soft cover (and get a better quality page than a photocopy!)
|
Three Ring Disadvantages
-
Pages can be removed and lost
-
Higher initial cost
-
Larger and heavier (e.g., 3 Ring MPEP 2 vol. set weighs in
at 25 lbs while the softcover 2 vol. set is only 11 lbs).
|
Which
format costs less overall?
This depends on how often
updates are applied to the manual. If you are an educational institution,
you may not need up to the minute updates and replacing the soft
cover every 18 months to 2 years may be acceptable. In this case, the soft
cover will be less expensive. Or, you may be a busy attorney that absolutely
must have the latest changes available as soon as possible. This dictates
the 3 ring will usually be less expensive overall (but this may not be
true for manuals over 1500 pages such as the MPEP).
Quite often, we only know
one to three weeks in advance when a change is going to be promulgated
and released. If you buy a soft cover in February, it may need to be replaced
in April. To help offset this problem we offer a large discount if you
recently purchased a manual from us, and smaller discounts as more time
passes since the purchase. But, for obvious business reasons, cost plus
shipping is the lowest we can sell a soft cover manual for, and this can
still be more than 50% of the cover price. We actually take a loss if you
purchased a soft cover manual and a new version is available within 30
days because we will replace it for shipping and handling costs alone.
If
you always need the most recent changes as soon as possible, three ring
is the way to go for the lowest total cost of ownership.
This discussion is not to
compare us to the U.S. Government Printing Office, but to help you make
a decision. The 3 Ring MPEP from the GPO is $280 where ours is $140.00.
The GPO does not include a binder. Two 3" to 4" 3 ring binders can
be as much as $40, and rarely under $30. The GPO will send you all updates
for that Edition (may include 1 to 3 updates) at no extra charge for the
life of that edition. We only charge you for printing and shipping costs
for updates. We are quite sure that the GPO version will never be as economical
as ours, not to mention that some changes can take over 8 months to get
from the GPO (we know this because it has happened to us - and you pay
for it all up front).
Here are detailed
descriptions of the two publication formats we offer:
Two volume MPEP set
Prefect Bind Soft Cover
Most are our popular new
6" by 9" format.
Others are standard 8.5"
by 11" (letter) size.
|
Three Ring Binder Format:
-
Heavy Duty D-Ring binder,
-
Slip cover inserts to
identify the manual,
-
Tabbed dividers to separate
the chapters,
-
Text of the manual (shipped
shrink wrapped with protective cardboard).
-
20-24 lb White reinforced
3 hole punched paper
-
CD-ROM included inside
the front cover for most pubs.
Soft Cover -
-
Perfect Bind® cover
binding
-
Laminated Cover for strength
and durability,
-
Printed on 50 or 60 lb
white paper (varies with no. of pages)
-
CD-ROM included inside
the back cover for most manuals.
CD-ROM w/ searchable PDF text -
this is the entire manual in Abobe PDF format and is included with most
manuals. It is also sold separately in a slim-line jewel case.
It is contained in a plastic slip case inside the front cover of
3 Ring, or back cover of Soft Cover publications. |
|
