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61-393: A sealed crustless sandwich consists of a filling between two layers of crimp-sealed bread, with the crust removed. Homemade variations are typically square, round, or triangular; the bread can vary, e.g., white or whole wheat; and the sandwiches can be homemade with common crimping techniques similar to pie crust , ravioli , or dumplings using readily available kitchen tools (e.g.,

122-436: A fork, small spoon or curved knife end to crimp the edges). A purpose-designed "cut and crimp" tool can also be used. Mass-produced varieties vary in shape, are typically individually wrapped, frozen and packaged — and include proprietary brands as well as house brands . They were introduced in 1995 with peanut butter and jelly filling, followed by numerous patent and trademark disputes as well as numerous competitors entering

183-399: A knife or by using one of several techniques such as latticing . Latticing involves interweaving strips of pastry. It can also be achieved by cutting horizontal rows of slits into a whole pie crust and pulling gently to open the slits , a technique known as a "peekaboo" lattice. United States Patent and Trademark Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office ( USPTO )

244-481: A licensed attorney; a patent attorney is a person who has passed both a state bar and the patent bar and is in good standing as an attorney. A patent agent can only act in a representative capacity in patent matters presented to the USPTO, and may not represent a patent holder or applicant in a court of law. To be eligible for taking the patent bar exam, a candidate must possess a degree in "engineering or physical science or

305-432: A means for locating said filling in the center of the sandwich and sealing the marginal edges of the pieces by heat and pressure to preclude the escape of filling from the finished product... [and] a means for trimming the baked dough pieces". These new pieces of prior art have been brought to the attention of the patent office through a reexamination proceeding. ( See below ) The J.M. Smucker Co. also attempted to patent

366-469: A patent application and prosecute it on his or her own behalf ( pro se ). If it appears to a patent examiner that an inventor filing a pro se application is not familiar with the proper procedures of the Patent Office, the examiner may suggest that the filing party obtain representation by a registered patent attorney or patent agent. The patent examiner cannot recommend a specific attorney or agent, but

427-689: A patent case. Under the America Invents Act , the BPAI was converted to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board or "PTAB". Similarly, decisions of trademark examiners may be appealed to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board , with subsequent appeals directed to the Federal Circuit, or a civil action may also be brought. In recent years, the USPTO has seen increasing delays between when a patent application

488-499: A permanent end to fee diversion. The discussion of which party can appropriate the fees is more than a financial question. Patent fees represent a policy lever that influences both the number of applications submitted to the office as well as their quality. The USPTO examines applications for trademark registration, which can be filed under five different filing bases: use in commerce, intent to use, foreign application, foreign registration, or international registration. If approved,

549-427: A reservoir for retaining the second filling in between". Many intellectual property experts and members of the general public view this patent as an example of the patent office's inability to properly examine patent applications. The patent examiner cited only seven previous patents issued between 1963 and 1998, and a 1994 book called 50 Great Sandwiches that were deemed relevant to the novelty and nonobviousness of

610-420: A round shape, including small businesses , arguing trademark infringement. Targeted companies have included Chubby Snacks, which revised their sandwiches to a cloud shape; Albie's Foods which revised their EZ Jammers to a triangular and later square shape, and Gallant Tiger which markets a decidedly adult-flavored product (e.g., chai spiced pear butter and peanut butter) selling at a price-point roughly six times

671-406: A slowdown in new application filings since the onset of the late-2000s economic crisis , and projections of substantial declines in maintenance fees in coming years, the agency imposed a hiring freeze in early March 2009. In 2006, USPTO instituted a new training program for patent examiners called the "Patent Training Academy". It is an eight-month program designed to teach new patent examiners

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732-416: Is also skill required when searching for prior art that is used to support the application and to prevent applying for a patent for something that may be unpatentable. A patent examiner will make special efforts to help pro se inventors understand the process but the failure to adequately understand or respond to an Office action from the USPTO can endanger the inventor's rights, and may lead to abandonment of

793-623: Is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alexandria, Virginia , after a 2005 move from the Crystal City area of neighboring Arlington , Virginia . The USPTO is "unique among federal agencies because it operates solely on fees collected by its users, and not on taxpayer dollars". Its "operating structure

854-486: Is filed and when it issues. To address its workload challenges, the USPTO has undertaken an aggressive program of hiring and recruitment. The USPTO hired 1,193 new patent examiners in Fiscal Year 2006 (year ending September 30, 2006), 1,215 new examiners in fiscal 2007, and 1,211 in fiscal year 2008. The USPTO expected to continue hiring patent examiners at a rate of approximately 1,200 per year through 2012; however, due to

915-541: Is like a business in that it receives requests for services—applications for patents and trademark registrations—and charges fees projected to cover the cost of performing the services [it] provide[s]". The Office is headed by the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, currently held by Kathi Vidal as of April 19, 2022. Andrei Iancu

976-400: Is often crimped to provide visual interest, and in the case of a two-crust pie in order to seal the top and bottom crusts together to prevent the filling from leaking. Crimping can be done by hand, pinching the two crusts together to create a ruffled edge, or with a tool. A pie's top crust is often pierced to allow steam to escape and to provide visual interest. Piercing can be done with

1037-415: Is particularly true in the fast-growing area of business method patents . As of 2005, patent examiners in the business method area were still examining patent applications filed in 2001. The delay was attributed by spokesmen for the Patent Office to a combination of a sudden increase in business method patent filings after the 1998 State Street Bank decision , the unfamiliarity of patent examiners with

1098-446: Is released, resulting in the pockets that make a flaky crust. Water is only added once the fat and flour are thoroughly combined. This ensures that the flour granules are adequately coated with fat and are less likely to develop gluten. This may be achieved with the use of a food processor , a specialized kitchen utensil called a pastry blender , or through various alternatives, like a pair of table knives held in one hand, or smearing

1159-427: Is used in making spritz cookies . Shortcrust pastry recipes usually call for twice as much flour as fat by weight. Fat (as lard , shortening , butter or traditional margarine ) is rubbed into plain flour to create a loose mixture that is then bound using a small amount of ice water, rolled out, then shaped and placed to create the top or bottom of a pie. Often, equal amounts of butter and lard are used to make

1220-701: The Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences , an administrative law body of the USPTO. Decisions of the BPAI could further be appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit , or a civil suit could be brought against the Commissioner of Patents in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia . The United States Supreme Court may ultimately decide on

1281-768: The Patent Cooperation Treaty . The legal basis for the United States patent system is the Copyright Clause in Section 8 of Article I of the U.S. Constitution , which gives Congress the power to grant patents and copyrights on a national basis. Trademark law, on the other hand, is considered to be authorized by the Commerce Clause . The Congress shall have Power ... To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors

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1342-927: The budget sequestration , the satellite office for Silicon Valley, which is home to one of the nation's top patent-producing cities, was put on hold. However, renovation and infrastructure updates continued after the sequestration, and the Silicon Valley location opened in the San Jose City Hall in 2015. As of September 30, 2009 , the end of the U.S. government's fiscal year, the PTO had 9,716 employees, nearly all of whom are based at its five-building headquarters complex in Alexandria. Of those, 6,242 were patent examiners (almost all of whom were assigned to examine utility patents ; only 99 were assigned to examine design patents ) and 388 were trademark examining attorneys ;

1403-467: The process of making the sandwich in 2004 (rather than just the sandwich itself) and on April 8, 2005, had its application rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC). [1] . In 2001, a small grocery and caterer in Gaylord, Michigan , Albie's Food, Inc., was sent a cease and desist letter from The J.M. Smucker Co., accusing Albie's of violating their intellectual property rights to

1464-438: The "sealed crustless sandwich". Instead of capitulating, Albie's took the case to federal court, noting in their filings a pocket sandwich with crimped edges and no crust was called a " pasty " and had been a popular dish in northern Michigan since the nineteenth century. Federal Court determined that Albie's Foods did not infringe on J.M. Smucker Co. intellectual property rights and was allowed to continue. In March 2001, during

1525-508: The 2009 National Trademark Expo, the Trademark Office designed and launched a kid-friendly trademark mascot known as T. Markey, who appears as an anthropomorphized registered trademark symbol. T. Markey is featured prominently on the Kids section of the USPTO website, alongside fellow IP mascots Ms. Pat Pending (with her robot cat GeaRS) and Mark Trademan. In 2020, trademark applications marked

1586-625: The Alexandria Campus, consisting of 11 buildings in a city-like development surrounded by ground floor retail and high rise residential buildings between the Metro stations of King Street station (the main search building is two blocks due south of the King Street station) and Eisenhower Avenue station where the actual Alexandria Campus is located between Duke Street (on the North) to Eisenhower Avenue (on

1647-584: The Commissioner for Patents oversaw three main bodies, headed by the former Deputy Commissioner for Patent Operations, Peggy Focarino, the Deputy Commissioner for Patent Examination Policy, which was held by Andrew Hirshfeld up until 2015, and finally the Commissioner for Patent Resources and Planning, which was vacant at that time. The Patent Operations of the office is divided into nine different technology centers that deal with various arts. Prior to 2012, decisions of patent examiners could be appealed to

1708-409: The Patent Office does post a list of those who are registered. While the inventor of a relatively simple-to-describe invention may well be able to produce an adequate specification and detailed drawings, there remains language complexity in what is claimed , either in the particular claim language of a utility application, or in the manner in which drawings are presented in a design application. There

1769-753: The South), and between John Carlyle Street (on the East) to Elizabeth Lane (on the West) in Alexandria, Virginia. An additional building in Arlington, Virginia , was opened in 2009. The USPTO was expected by 2014 to open its first ever satellite offices in Detroit , Dallas , Denver , and Silicon Valley to reduce backlog and reflect regional industrial strengths. The first satellite office opened in Detroit on July 13, 2012. In 2013, due to

1830-542: The U.S. Trademark Office originated in China. Since 2008, the Trademark Office has hosted a National Trademark Expo every two years, billing it as "a free, family-friendly event designed to educate the public about trademarks and their importance in the global marketplace." The Expo features celebrity speakers such as Anson Williams (of the television show Happy Days ) and basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and has numerous trademark-holding companies as exhibitors. Before

1891-418: The USPTO director. She was sworn in on April 13, 2022. On December 16, 2022, Kathi Vidal announced that Vaishali Udupa, an intellectual property attorney, engineer, and currently a top executive from Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), will join the 13,000-person Department of Commerce agency as the new Commissioner for Patents effective January 17, 2023. For many years, Congress has "diverted" about 10% of

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1952-930: The United States, mass-produced crustless sealed sandwiches were introduced in 1995, in Fargo, North Dakota by David Geske and Len Kretchman — at the time marketing as Incredible Uncrustables to schools in the Midwest, with fifty employees making roughly 35,000 of the sealed sandwiches daily by 1998. Their company was purchased by The J.M. Smucker Company in 1998. In Japan, Yamazaki Baking has marketed Lunch Pack sealed sandwiches since 1984. Companies have marketed sealed crustless sandwiches in square, triangular, round and even cloud shapes — with an extensive range of fillings, including ham, cheese, chocolate-hazelnut spread, almond butter and jam, peanut butter and honey, peanut butter and apple butter, peanut butter and banana, sunflower butter and jelly — or, prominently, peanut butter and jelly. In

2013-464: The application and also includes an interview with the examiner. The first accelerated patent was granted on March 15, 2007, with a six-month issuance time. As of the end of 2008, there were 1,208,076 patent applications pending at the Patent Office. At the end of 1997, the number of applications pending was 275,295. Therefore, over those eleven years there was a 439% increase in the number of pending applications. December 2012 data showed that there

2074-501: The application. The USPTO accepts patent applications filed in electronic form. Inventors or their patent agents/attorneys can file applications as Adobe PDF documents. Filing fees can be paid by credit card or by a USPTO "deposit account". The USPTO web site provides free electronic copies of issued patents and patent applications as multiple-page TIFF (graphic) documents. The site also provides Boolean search and analysis tools. The USPTO's free distribution service only distributes

2135-651: The bread so it doesn't create air pockets and using round loaves. Chubby Snacks, headquartered in Colorado, launched as a direct-to-consumer brand in 2020. It markets its sealed sandwiches in a "cloud" shape using organic, whole wheat bread; medjool dates and monk fruit for sweetness rather than refined sugar, and having 2-3 grams of sugar per sandwich. The company aimed to manufacture 30 million sealed crustless sandwiches annually by 2024. Smuckers, with $ 7.8 billion in net sales as of 2020, has issued cease and desist letters to any company marketing crustless sealed sandwiches in

2196-438: The bulk of the employees at USPTO. They hold degrees in various scientific disciplines, but do not necessarily hold law degrees. Unlike patent examiners, trademark examiners must be licensed attorneys. All examiners work under a strict, "count"-based production system. For every application, "counts" are earned by composing, filing, and mailing a first Office action on the merits, and upon disposal of an application. In 2012,

2257-506: The business and financial arts (e.g., banking, insurance , stock trading etc.), and the issuance of a number of controversial patents ( e.g. , U.S. patent 5,960,411 " Amazon one click patent ") in the business method area. Effective August 2006, the USPTO introduced an accelerated patent examination procedure in an effort to allow inventors a speedy evaluation of an application with a final disposition within twelve months. The procedure requires additional information to be submitted with

2318-694: The case of the latter, some companies apply the peanut butter to both interior surfaces of the bread, shielding the bread from the jelly — engineer the bread to prevent filling leaks or augment the crimping with starch to provide a tighter seal. Mass-produced U.S. brands include: Smuckers has plants in Kentucky Colorado and Alabama with Uncrustables sales projected at $ 500 million in 2021 — offering numerous variations, e.g., Grilled Cheese Uncrustable (approximately 2003-2014), Ham and Cheddar Bites, Pepperoni Bites and others. In 2023, Smucker said it took about ten years to prevent "leaky sandwiches," designing

2379-433: The cost of an Uncrustable. The Gallant Tiger founder noted that at a time when the company had seven sales outlets, "1,000 followers on Instagram and $ 20,000 in sales, and [Smuckers was] telling us that not only are we infringing on their trademark, which is a circle-shaped sandwich, but we also were falsifying advertising and essentially slandering them. It was weird. It was almost like in the eyes of Smucker, [Gallant Tiger]

2440-453: The equivalent of such a degree". Any person who practices trademark law before the USPTO must be an active member in good standing of the highest court of any state. The United States allows any citizen from any country to sit for the patent bar (if he/she has the requisite technical background). Only Canada has a reciprocity agreement with the United States that confers upon a patent agent similar rights. An unrepresented inventor may file

2501-478: The exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries. The USPTO maintains a permanent, interdisciplinary historical record of all U.S. patent applications in order to fulfill objectives outlined in the United States Constitution . The PTO's mission is to promote "industrial and technological progress in the United States and strengthen the national economy" by: The USPTO is headquartered at

Sealed crustless sandwich - Misplaced Pages Continue

2562-401: The fees that the USPTO collected into the general treasury of the United States. In effect, this took money collected from the patent system to use for the general budget. This fee diversion has been generally opposed by patent practitioners (e.g., patent attorneys and patent agents ), inventors, the USPTO, as well as former federal judge Paul R. Michel . These stakeholders would rather use

2623-458: The flour and fat together using the heel of the hand in a method known as fraisage . In addition to over-warming the dough, overworking it is also a hazard. Overworking elongates the gluten strands, creating a product that is tough, rather than light and crumbly or flaky. Flour made from low protein soft wheat, like cake flour , is used for pastry making because it does not become overworked and tough as easily as bread flour. A pie crust edge

2684-403: The fundamentals of patent law, practice and examination procedure in a college-style environment. Because of the impending USPTO budget crisis previously alluded to, it had been rumored that the academy would be closed by the end of 2009. Focarino, then Acting Commissioner for Patents, denied in a May 2009 interview that the academy was being shut down, but stated that it would be cut back because

2745-569: The funds to improve the patent office and patent system, such as by implementing the USPTO's 21st Century Strategic Plan. The last six annual budgets of the George W. Bush administration did not propose to divert any USPTO fees, and the first budget of the Barack Obama administration continued this practice, as well as the second budget of the Trump administration; however, stakeholders continue to press for

2806-511: The hiring goal for new examiners in fiscal 2009 was reduced to 600. Ultimately, 588 new patent examiners were hired in fiscal year 2009. In 2016, the USPTO partnered with the Girl Scouts of the USA to create an " Intellectual Property Patch" merit badge , which is awarded to Girl Scouts at four different levels. In October 2021, President Joe Biden nominated attorney Kathi Vidal to serve as

2867-407: The invention. He concluded that the invention was indeed novel and not obvious and allowed the claims. Since then, many more earlier patents and publications have been found that teach some or all of the different aspects of the invention. These include a 1949 patent ( U.S. patent 2,463,439 ) that describes a device to create these types of sandwiches: "An object of this invention is to provide...

2928-454: The jelly is held between two layers of peanut butter. Nonetheless, in December 2003, the patent examiner rejected the narrowed claims in light of the new prior art. Smucker's appealed the rejection to the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI). In September 2006, the BPAI reversed the examiner's reasons for rejecting the claims, but found new reasons for rejecting them. They found that

2989-516: The legal proceedings, Albie's filed a request for reexamination with the USPTO asking that the patent be reexamined in light of the new prior art . The reexamination serial number is 90/005,949. In response to the new prior art cited, Smucker's narrowed the wording of their claims to only cover a very specific version of their sealed crustless sandwich. The more narrow claims, for example, only cover sealed crustless peanut butter and jelly sandwiches where

3050-608: The market. The sandwiches offer easily-frozen and thawed, ready-to-eat, portable convenience and have been called, "the Swiss Army knife of foods". Originally developed for as a prepared food for school lunches, they have appeal across generations and can easily be included in a homemade lunch. In 2018, sealed crustless sandwiches were made available to firemen during the California wildfires . National Football League teams buy tens of thousands of them for players to eat as snacks. In

3111-425: The pastry, ensuring that the combined weight of the two fat products is still half that of the flour. The butter is employed to give the pastry a rich flavor, while the lard ensures optimum texture. In preparing a shortcrust, the fat and flour are "cut" into each other, rather than blended, and the ingredients are kept cold. This ensures that the fat remains distinct in the crust, and when it heats during baking, steam

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3172-467: The patent and trademark applications, and participating in administrative appeals and other proceedings before the PTO examiners, examining attorneys and boards. The USPTO sets its own standards for who may practice. Any person who practices patent law before the USPTO must become a registered patent attorney or agent. A patent agent is a person who has passed the USPTO registration examination (the "patent bar") but has not passed any state bar exam to become

3233-424: The patent described a sandwich with a layer of filling in between two pieces of bread which are crimped shut and have their crust removed. The other nine claims of the patent elaborate the idea further, including the coating of two sides of the bread with peanut butter first before putting the jelly in the middle, so that the jelly would not seep into the bread—the layers of filling "are engaged to one another to form

3294-551: The patent documents as a set of TIFF files. Numerous free and commercial services provide patent documents in other formats, such as Adobe PDF and CPC . The USPTO has been criticized for granting patents for impossible or absurd, already known, or arguably obvious inventions. Economists have documented that, although the USPTO makes mistakes when granting patents, these mistakes might be less prominent than some might believe. The USPTO has been criticized for taking an inordinate amount of time in examining patent applications. This

3355-406: The rest are support staff. While the agency has noticeably grown in recent years, the rate of growth was far slower in fiscal 2009 than in the recent past; this is borne out by data from fiscal 2005 to the present: As of the end of FY 2018, the USPTO was composed of 12,579 federal employees, including 8,185 patent examiners, 579 trademark examiners, and 3,815 other staff. Patent examiners make up

3416-601: The sharpest declines and inclines in American history. During the spring, COVID-19 lockdowns led to reduced filings, which then increased in July 2020 to exceed the previous year. August 2020 was subsequently the highest month of trademark filings in the history of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The USPTO only allows certain qualified persons to practice before the USPTO. Practice includes filing of patent and trademark applications on behalf of individuals and companies, prosecuting

3477-891: The trademarks are registered on either the Principal Register or the Supplemental Register , depending upon whether the mark meets the appropriate distinctiveness criteria. This federal system governs goods and services distributed via interstate commerce, and operates alongside state level trademark registration systems. Trademark applications have grown substantially in recent years, jumping from 296,490 new applications in 2000, to 345,000 new applications in 2014, to 458,103 new applications in 2018. Recent growth has been driven partially by growing numbers of trademark applications originating in China; trademark applications from China have grown more than 12-fold since 2013, and in 2017, one in every nine trademark applications reviewed by

3538-458: The wording in the narrowed claims was too vague to clearly identify exactly what Smucker's is trying to patent. Because Smucker's failed to respond to the BPAI's rejections within the two-month deadline, the PTO mailed a Notice of Intent to Issue a Reexamination Certificate (NIIRC) in December 2006 cancelling all claims. The reexamination certificate was issued on September 25, 2007. Pie crust A sweetened version – using butter –

3599-499: Was 597,579 unexamined patent applications in the backlog. During the four years since 2009, more than a 50% reduction was achieved. First action pendency was reported as 19.2 months. In 2012, the USPTO initiated an internal investigation into allegations of fraud by employees taking advantage of its remote work policies. Investigators discovered that some patent examiners had lied about the hours they had worked, but high level officials prevented access to computer records, thus limiting

3660-503: Was a criminal," adding that a consumer "can tell the difference between Domino's and Pizza Hut [pizza] even though they're both circular food products. So what are we really talking about here?" The United States Patent and Trademark Office issued a number of patents for mass-produced versions of a sealed crustless sandwich, which were subsequently reexamined and cancelled for having attempted to patent obvious or well known concepts. The first claim of Menusaver's patent reads: That is,

3721-605: Was the former director of the USPTO until he left office on January 20, 2021. The USPTO cooperates with the European Patent Office (EPO) and the Japan Patent Office (JPO) as one of the Trilateral Patent Offices . The USPTO is also a Receiving Office, an International Searching Authority and an International Preliminary Examination Authority for international patent applications filed in accordance with

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