US Patent and Trademark Office Notifies Filers of Years-Long Data Leak

The federal government agency responsible for granting patents and trademarks has confirmed it inadvertently exposed about 61,000 filers' private addresses in a years-long data spill. From a report:The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) said in a notice sent to affected trademark applicants that their private domicile address -- often their home address -- inadvertently appeared in public records between February 2020 and March 2023. U.S. law requires applicants to include their private address when submitting a trademark application in efforts to crack down on fraudulent trademark filings.

USPTO said the issue was discovered in one of its APIs, which allows apps used by both agency staff and filers to access a system for checking the status of pending and registered trademarks. (An API allows two things on the internet, such as an app and a server, to communicate with each other.) USPTO said that the address data also appeared in bulk datasets that the agency publishes online to aid academic and economic research.

This is why you always use a virtual office

[dknj]

And a registered agent and file your patents under an LLC.

Re: This is why you always use a virtual office

[dknj]

If you must file a patent under your personal name, then a trust is a must (higher upfront cost than an LLC but no recurring costs outside of asset changes)

Re:

[dfghjk]

Who MUST file a patent ever?

If you want to pretend to be an expert, try a little harder. Ask SuperKendall for some help.

Private address

[quiberon2]

I thought this was so that a competitor business could approach the inventor and try to hire them away, i.e. an antimonopoly effect and one which raises salaries of inventors. I have patented inventions for my employer but unfortunately no competitor has ever approached me !

Re: Private address

[quiberon2]

And thereby something in the public interest of th USA.

Shrinking Violets

[quiberon2]

You can alternatively give your business address. But that is no fun !

Discrimination ...

[PPH]

U.S. law requires applicants to include their private address

... against the homeless.

An API allows two things on the internet

[terrorubic]

An API (Application Programming Interface) is a collection of rules and protocols that enables diverse software applications to communicate and interact with one another.