EnCirca’s President will be a panelist today on the USPTO’s Trademarks and NFT Roundtable

Tom Barrett from EnCirca will be making remarks on the virtual Trademark and NFT Roundtable being held today (January 24, 2023) by the US Patent & Trademark Office. 

Three panels are scheduled today:

1. Technologist panel: 10:10am-11:45am
2. Academic and associations panel: 12:15pm-1:30pm
3. Brand owners and practitioners panel: 2pm-4:30pm

Barrett will be speaking during the first panel of the day and will be making three points:

1. The recent cryptocurrency disasters scream for regulation.  But Congress should avoid passing legislation that covers both cryptocurrency and NFTs.  By all means, regulate cryptocurrencies.  But give NFT’s a chance at self-governance
2. Let history be our guide. The NFT industry will soon have their “Green Paper” moment and start self-governing itself.  This includes adopting a universal trademark dispute policy and blocklists to combat trademark abuse and build consumer confidence
3. The USPTO has historically denied trademark registrations for potential ICANN TLDs.  Now, blockchain alternative roots are proliferating but not all agree these are domain names.  Instead, they often use other terms, such as usernames, handles, digital identities.   Many of these will be applying to the USPTO: not necessarily to apply for a new ICANN TLD but to prevent others from applying via ICANN for colliding strings.  The USPTO needs to consider carefully whether to give these applications different treatment than those for ICANN TLDs.
   
   The public can review the agenda and listen in for free by registering here: Roundtable: Trademarks and non-fungible tokens | USPTO