Here you will be able to find out all the latest news and info about POPA – Patent Office Professional Association. Reminder: Every Tuesday from 11am – 1pm there will be Office Hours held in the POPA Office, RND 1D61 or by phone x2-7162. This is where you can meet and discuss your issues with a POPA representative. Note: If The Full Article
Dear POPA Bargaining Unit Members, This Thursday, Dec. 4, 2014, from 11:30 to 12:30, we will be holding our 2014 POPA Annual Meeting in the Madison Auditorium, North side. I hope you all will plan on joining us. While seating in the Auditorium is limited and available on a first come, first serve basis, we will also have the meeting The Full Article
Dear POPA Bargaining Unit Members, I regret to inform you that the saga of “USPTO in the News” continues. Even in the face of record FY2014 performance by the USPTO and its thousands and thousands of high-performing employees, still the Department of Commerce Office of the Inspector General (OIG or IG) has chosen to expend huge amounts of resources and The Full Article
A Message from the President of the Patent Office Professional Association September 8, 2014 In the last several weeks, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has become the focus of news articles, particularly those in the Washington Post, allegedly identifying several issues of improper or unethical conduct by USPTO employees. Unfortunately, several articles have mischaracterized many of these alleged The Full Article
The following is the timetable for the upcoming POPA elections. The representative nomination form may be found in the link at the bottom of the page. If you have any questions, please contact a POPA officer. POPA 2014 Election Schedule August 14th – Executive Committee Apportionment vote; August 21st – Deadline for mailing out notice of nomination period and election period to The Full Article
POPA appreciates the continued support of its dues-paying members. While supplies last, POPA is offering a USB extended battery back-up power bank to dues-paying members. Dues-paying members at the Alexandria Campus, including PHP (non-TEAPP) participants, may pick up their power bank on the following days (please bring work i.d. for membership verification): RND 1D61, POPA Office Hours, Tuesdays 11AM-1PM: September 9, The Full Article
Dear POPA Bargaining Unit Members, I would like to update you on several issues of importance to many, if not all, of you. ADC Memo on 3:00 Cutoff on Count Mondays Hopefully by now you all have seen yesterday’s email from the ADCs regarding the fact that, as part of the recent changes to the examiner PAPs, the cutoff time The Full Article
Dear POPA Bargaining Unit Members, The 2014 election of POPA officers and Executive Committee Delegates will take place in November. Since we now carry out our elections by mail-in ballot, preparations for the election must take place well in advance. This includes determining the “apportionment of delegates,” i.e., how many delegates may be elected to the Executive Committee from each The Full Article
USPTO announced the reinstatement of funding for non-duty time legal studies and technical training programs. Please visit our topics page for new information and forms!
Dear Members of the Examining Corps, Many of you have been stopping me and other POPA representatives in the hallways wanting to know the status of the USPTO/POPA PAP Task Force discussions regarding any changes to Docket Management and, in particular, the status of the Pendency Award for the 3rd Quarter of FY14. The Task Force has been working hard for The Full Article
POPA and other members of the Federal-Postal Coalition, together representing more than five million federal and postal employees, sent a letter to Senator Patty Murray and Congressman Paul Ryan, chairs of the joint Budget Committee, opposing any further attempts to balance the federal budget on the backs of federal employees. It is believed that the Budget Committee will propose this The Full Article