Ptab Bar Association

“The ptab bar association has three classes of membership: (1) regular members, (2) judicial members, and (3) affiliates. Regular members are persons who are interested in or practice before the ptab, and who are members in good standing of the bar of a court of record of the united states or any state or territory thereof or of the district of columbia or have a registration in good standing to practice before the uspto (collectively, the (bar"). Regular membership also includes members of the bar who devote their work activity, substantially full time, to teaching in a law school approved by the association of american law schools. Regular members have the right to vote and hold office as a director or officer. Judicial members consist of administrative patent judges on the ptab and persons who are employed full time as a judge in any court, agency or office of the united states or any state or territory thereof or of the district of columbia and who have an interest in patent law. Judicial members are not entitled to vote or hold office as a director or officer. Affiliates are persons who are not qualified for regular or judicial membership but who are interested in the ptab. Persons who have been disbarred or suspended from the practice of law in any juridiction are not eligible to be affiliates. Affiliates are not entitled to vote or hold office as a director or officer. The board has the authority and discretion to create additional member or affiliate classes and to set the rights and obligations of the class.”

“During this tax year, the regular members of the ptab bar association elected the officers and directors at the annual meeting. At each annual meeting, five new directors will be elected to serve three-year terms and the president elect, vice president, secretary and treasurer will be elected for one-year terms from the eligible directors. The president role is automatically filled the following year by the person elected as president elect the prior year.”

“The day-to-day governance of the ptab bar association is vested in the board. However, the membership elects the board as briefly discussed for line 7a above and, with the exception of the creation of new member or affiliate classes, the regular membership must approve amendments to the bylaws by a two-thirds vote of members present at any duly called meeting of the asociation.”

“The form 990 and schedule o are circulated to the board in substantially final form for their review and comment in advance of the filing of the tax return. Any comments or questions are discussed either on a telephone call or via email. After this step is complete, the board votes to approve the filing of the tax return in its final form.”

“The ptab bar association's governing documents, tax returns, and annual reports are available to the public by request and the bylaws also are available on the association's website.”

“Part 1, summary, line 1: education. The ptab bar association conducts conferences, workshops and seminars to provide training and continuing education of patent trial and appeal board ("ptab") specific developments and best practices for attorneys and agents who represent clients before the ptab. Through these conferences and workshops, the ptab judges and the legal community can engage in thoughtful discussion to educate each other in the just, speedy, and inexpensive resolution of ptab proceedings. The association also has regular publications of educational legal articles written by members and distributed to members and a journal in connection with john marshall law school. The association also is planning to conduct frequent webinars starting in calandar year 2018. The educational activity will be conducted by members of the association, uspto officials, and ptab judges. Professional engagement. Through opportunities for social engagement between all members of the ptab community at various organizational events, both educational and social, the standards of integrity, honor, service, collegiality and courtesy are promoted by the association. The activity includes committees formed within the association that are populated with association members to perform various activities in operational support of the association and for discussing substantive legal areas of the law. This activity also includes social engagements such as dinners and receptions connected with educational conferences and workshops. This activity will be conducted by members of the association, uspto officials, and ptab judges. Public service. The association has prepared and filed an amicus curiae "friends of the court" brief in oil states energy services, llc v greene's energy group, llc no. 16-712 u.s. S.ct, in which the constitutionality of ptab proceedings were at issue. The association has a committee in place to consider similar filings in other appeals to assist the court in deciding important issues affecting the public and members of the association involving the proceedings the ptab conducts. Through other committees of the association, members also will provide comment and feedback to the ptab on its operations, rules, trial practice, best practices and administrative improvements to help improve the operation of the legal proceedings conducted at the ptab. The association also is considering ways in which it can coordinate its members to provide pro bono representation of deserving low income participants before the ptab. Scholarships. The association also plans to create scholarships for deserving law students interested in practicing before the ptab to help promote diversity in the legal profession and the future membership of the association. This activity is in the discussion stages and would not begin until at least 2019 and will be conducted by members of the association.”

“Line 6a, b: as a new organization, the ptab bar association did not know how significant its annual gross receipts would be at the time it began to solicit seed funders in mid-2016 or that it may need to provide an express statement of non-deductibility if the gross receipts exceeded 100,000. At the time membership opened, the ptab bar association also was not aware that it needed to provide an express statement that membership dues were not deductible as charitable contributions. The ptab bar association learned of these requirements while preparing its 2016 tax return during part of fiscal year 2017 and now includes an express statement on its website where member registration occurs and on individual sponsorship solicitations that the payments are not tax deductible as charitable contributions, that the individual or entity should check with their tax provider about whether the payment is deductible as a business expenses and that none of the payment will be used for lobbying activities.”

“To adjust from accrual f/s to cash basis @ 1/31/17 -143,659 to adjust from accrual f/s to cash basis @ 1/31/18 -64,758 total -208,417”