412.05    Handling of Confidential Materials By the Board

A confidential filing submitted via ESTTA will not be made available for public viewing, although an entry will be made on the publicly-available docket sheet in TTABVUE, indicating the Board’s receipt of such filings. Confidential materials submitted in paper form (including trade secret information) filed under seal subject to a protective order are stored by the Board in a secure location, and are disclosed only to the Board and to those people specified in the protective order as having the right to access. Confidential material, while given full consideration by the Board in its rulings, will not be disclosed in orders or decisions. [ Note 1.] After the proceeding before the Board has been finally determined, the party(ies) will be contacted to arrange for the return or retrieval of all confidential materials submitted by them, or otherwise be required to consent to their disposal. If the Board does not hear from the party(ies) within a specified time period, the confidential materials will be destroyed. For further information regarding the handling of confidential information by the Board, see TBMP § 120.02. For information concerning access to protective order materials during an appeal from the decision of the Board, see TBMP § 904.

NOTES:

 1.   See, e.g., Schering Plough HealthCare Products Inc. v. Ing-Jing Huang, 84 USPQ2d 1323, 1324 (TTAB 2007); Standard Knitting Ltd. v. Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha, 77 USPQ2d 1917, 1930 n.22 (TTAB 2006).