(461) Standard Form Agreement or Order for
Protecting Confidentiality of Information and
Documents Disclosed During Proceedings Before the
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board
Parties involved in inter partes proceedings before the Trademark
Trial and Appeal Board often enter into agreements intended to safeguard
information and documents viewed as confidential, commercially sensitive
or trade secret. Similarly, a party involved in a Board proceeding may
move the Board for an order providing that disclosure of such
information or documents be conditioned on the receiving party's being
obligated to hold the material in confidence and utilize it only for
purposes related to the proceeding.
The Board, in response to requests from parties involved in its
cases, has promulgated standard provisions for protecting such material.
Parties may agree to be bound by these provisions, to facilitate the
exchange of information and documents. As an alternative, parties may
use the standard form as a template upon which to base a more
particularized agreement. In cases where the parties do not agree on
provisions for protecting confidential, commercially sensitive or trade
secret information, the Board may make orders designed to facilitate
discovery or trial activities. The standard provisions may be imposed by
the Board in appropriate cases.
The standard form Agreement or Order is published with this notice
and made available to parties for their use. The document will also be
made available on the Office's website [www.USPTO.gov/web/menu/tm]; and
it will be included in future revisions of the Trademark Trial and
Appeal Board Manual of Procedure [TBMP].
May 23, 2000 J. DAVID SAMS
Chief Administrative Trademark Judge
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board
[1235 TMOG 70]
Top of Notices (461) December 27, 2011