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This position is located in the Office of the Solicitor, Office of General Counsel. The Senior Trademark Legal Counsel serves as a principal litigation strategist and advisor, specializing in trademark law and trademark policy. The role demands initiative and a comprehensive understanding of trademark law and policy, trademark litigation, administrative law, and intellectual property law and policy more broadly, including copyright law, due to the extensive responsibilities of the position.
Learn more about this agency08/30/2024 to 09/27/2024
$147,649 - $204,000 per year
SL 00
1 vacancy in the following location:
No
Yes—as determined by the agency policy.
Occasional travel - You may be expected to travel for this position.
No
Permanent
Full-time
Excepted
00
Yes
No
Yes
EXRD-OGCO-24-12492006-DE
807215800
U.S. Citizens, Nationals or those who owe allegiance to the U.S.
As the Senior Trademark Legal Counsel, you will have the exciting opportunity to serve as one of the recognized experts for the USPTO, on trademark policy and litigation issues for the Solicitor's Office. The Senior Trademark Legal Counsel position is located in the Office of the Solicitor within the Office of General Counsel. In this significant role you must exercise initiative and proficiency in trademark law, administrative law, litigation, agency regulations, and trademark policy.
The Senior Trademark Legal Counsel renders legal and policy advice on trademark matters through the Solicitor, Deputy Solicitor, and the General Counsel to the Under Secretary and Director of the USPTO and other members of the USPTO's senior staff; and should have high level of experience and expertise in (1) Trademark law, litigation, and policy issues, (2) Rulemaking and administrative law, and (3) District court and appellate litigation. The position serves as the Solicitor's Office's liaison with other USPTO business units regarding trademark policy and legal issues while coordinating the USPTO's efforts in federal court trademark-related litigation with a focus on overseeing the Solicitor's Office work in district court actions brought under 35 U.S.C. § 1071(b) and the Administrative Procedure Act and identifying opportunities for the USPTO to file amicus and intervenor briefs in significant trademark and copyright cases.
To meet the minimum requirements for this position, candidates must demonstrate their experience in their narrative responses to the Professional Technical Qualifications (PTQs) questions and all narrative responses must be fully supported within their resume. *Applicants must use the USA Jobs text boxes to submit their narrative responses to the PTQs. Do not write "see resume" or "see attached documents". Each PTQ has a 10,000-character limit (to include spaces) that must be adhered to. Uploaded documents addressing the PTQs will not be accepted.
Experience must have been at a sufficiently high level of difficulty to clearly show that the candidate possesses the required professional/technical qualifications set forth below.
Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.
Professional Technical Qualifications: Applicants must clearly demonstrate in their application materials that they possess technical attributes in the Professional/Technical Qualifications (PTQs).
Please provide your narrative responses to the Professional Technical Qualification (PTQs) questions - Do not write "see resume" or "see attached document". Uploaded documents addressing the PTQs will not be accepted.
Applicants are required to input narrative responses to the Professional Technical Qualifications (PTQs) in the text boxes as prompted by USAJobs. Each PTQ has a 10,000-character limit (to include spaces) that must be adhered to.
The Professional Technical Qualifications (PTQs) for this position are:
The candidate must have a law degree from an accredited law school program and must be a member of a bar in good standing, in the United States or a Territory of the United States.
This is a Non-Bargaining Unit position
This is a Public Trust position and has a risk level designation of "high".
The USPTO participates in E-Verify. For more information on E-Verify, please visit the Department of Homeland Security Website.
Probationary Period: If selected, you may be required to serve a two-year probationary period.
All Federal employees are required to have Federal salary payments made by direct deposit to a financial institution of their choice.
Relocation Expenses are not authorized and will not be paid.
More than one selection may be made from this announcement if additional identical vacancies in the same title, series, grade, and unit occur within 90 days from the date the certificate was issued.
All application materials become the property of the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
USPTO Job Applicants requiring reasonable accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process should request accommodation(s) from the USPTO at http://www.uspto.gov/accommodation.
The Ethics in Government Act of 1978, as amended, requires senior officials in the executive, legislative and judicial branches to file public reports of their finances as well as other interests outside the Government. If selected for this position you will be required to file a Financial Disclosure Report (OGE Form 278). The OGE 278 is available to the public. The primary purpose of disclosure is to assist agencies in identifying potential conflicts of interest between a filer's official duties and the filer's private financial interests and affiliations.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, retaliation, parental status, military service, or other non-merit factors. If you believe that you have been discriminated against and would like to file an EEO complaint, you must do so within 45 days of the date of the alleged discriminatory act. Claims of employment discrimination must be submitted to the attention of the USPTO's Office of Equal Employment Opportunity & Diversity via email (oeeod@uspto.gov) or phone (571-272-8292).
You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.
In order to be considered In order to be considered for this position, you must (1) demonstrate in your application package that you meet the experience as defined under the "Qualifications" section, (2) answer the Professional Technical Qualifications (PTQs), (3) submit a detailed resume that supports your answers to the PTQs and specialized experience.
Your responses to the PTQs and resume will be evaluated by a Human Resources Specialist and/or a subject matter expert. Falsifying your background, education, and/or experience is cause for not hiring you or for changing your scored responses to questions you've answered, which may affect your overall final score.
Please note that a complete application is required for consideration. (Please review the "Required Documents" section of this job announcement to see what must be included in a complete application).
A complete application consists of the following Supporting Documents:
******If you are currently, or have been within the last five years, a political Schedule A, Schedule C, or Non-career SES employee in the Executive Branch, you must disclose this information in your application.
You MUST apply online. If you experience difficulties with the application process or do not have access to a computer, please contact the HR Specialist listed as the point of contact before the closing date of this job announcement.
If you are a new user to the USAJobs Site and have never registered for an account; you will first need to create an account profile with your basic contact information and a resume to begin applying. You must be a registered USAJobs user AND you must be signed-in to your account in order to apply for this position. For help setting up an account or for general help using USAJobs, go to USAJobs Help Page. Once you have gathered all of the required information and are ready to begin the application process, click the "APPLY" button at the right side of the page. You will then be directed away from USAJobs to the Department of Commerce application site for USPTO. You must click "Submit" at the end of the application process to send your application for consideration.
To return to your saved application, log in to your USAJOBS account at http://www.usajobs.gov/ and click on "Applications." Click on the position title, then select "Update Application." If you experience any difficulties with the application site, help is available! OPM has a Help feature on each page. Use this option when you need assistance.
All required supporting documents will be collected electronically via the USAJobs "Saved Documents" feature.
Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is defined as information that can be traced back to a specific individual and potentially compromise their security or privacy. Examples of PII include: date of birth, Social Security Number, and place of birth.
Please ensure that you have removed all Personally Identifiable Information from all documents prior to submitting or uploading your applications material.
Candidates are evaluated by an executive rating panel based on the degree to which they meet the PTQs, and which considers the applicant's education, work-related experience, training, awards, and professional recognition, as set forth in the materials submitted by the candidates and placed in one of the pre-defined quality categories. These categories are "Highly Qualified", "Well Qualified" and "Qualified." Candidates placed in the "highest quality category" will be identified for referral to the hiring manager and may be invited for an interview.
You will receive a notice generated by the USAJobs System when you have successfully submitted your application. You will be notified of your application status through USAJOBS at four points during the hiring process, as applicable.
The four points of notification are:
You will receive notification through USAJobs at each of the following points during the application process: (1) application received, (2) applicant assessed for qualifications, (3) applicant referred or not referred, and (4) applicant selected or not selected.
You can check the status of your application by accessing the USAJOBS website at http://usajobs.gov/ and clicking on "Track Your Online Application." You may also sign up to receive automatic emails anytime the status of your application has changed by logging in to your USAJobs account, editing your profile, and changing the "Notification Settings" to indicate that you want to be notified by email when the status changes. Information regarding the status of your application should be updated in the system within two weeks after the closing date of this job announcement.
The Federal hiring process is set up to be fair and transparent. Please read the following guidance.
This job originated on www.usajobs.gov. For the full announcement and to apply, visit www.usajobs.gov/job/807215800. Only resumes submitted according to the instructions on the job announcement listed at www.usajobs.gov will be considered.
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Come work for the Patent and Trademark Office, where we have been ranked as one of the best places to work in the federal government! The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has been serving the economic interests of America for more than 200 years. We are responsible for granting US intellectual property rights for patents and trademarks. The USPTO is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, and has over 12,000 employees. For more information about the USPTO, please visit the USPTO Jobs Website.
