USPTO News USPTO announced a new category for its Patents for Humanity Program for inventors of technology to track, prevent, diagnose, or treat COVID-19. USPTO is now accepting circumstances related to COVID-19 as "excusable nonuse" in trademark maintenance filings. Commissioner for Trademarks David Gooder commented on new provisions in the Trademark Modernization Act, which was signed into law in December, 2020. Lead Administrative Patent Judges Georgianna Braden and Jessica Kaiser, Chief Clerk of the Board Erica Swift, David McCombs of Haynes and Boone LLP, and Pauline Pelletier of Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C. conducted a Boardside Chat about remote hearings.