US Patent and Trademark Office Awards InterNACHI a new Federal Certification Mark!

I am pleased to announce that after several years, the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued InterNACHI a Notice of Allowance for the new “*Certified Professional Inspector *(CPI)” professional designation.

:smiley:

CREIA Inspectors have bragged in the past about how they are also CPIs. I believe TAREI has a similar designation.

Not anymore.

This will likely be a HUGE boost for my friend Keith Swift and the crew at his CalNACHI.

For those with dual memberships, there is no problem. For those not NACHI members, there’s a huge problem. Webmasters in California and Texas are anxiously awaiting instructions to remove CPI references from CREIA member websites. Printing companies are also likely waiting orders for new brochures and business cards.

For those who believe they already occupied the field while using these designations n the past, let me explain:

The period to protest this as a registered designation began way back in 2005 and went on for the past three years…

Apparently no one protested.

Correct, the opposition window is now closed.

TAREI should have protested if they were concerned shouldn’t they? Is this another designation for all iNACHI members to use or are there additional requirements? TAREI’s CPI designation has required:

Congratulations!:stuck_out_tongue: :D:p

It is surprising how you as an individual think “so far ahead” and all of the rest of us just sit and think… Damn! Nick has really got his chit together!:nachi: :nachi: :nachi:

I am sure that there are MANY who just had a baby walrus over this matter!\:D/ #-o \:D/

Nick,

Any planned additional requirments for this designation?

According to the USPTO website Certified Professional Inspector is for compliance of environmental regulations:

Word Mark **CERTIFIED PROFESSIONAL INSPECTOR (CPI)Goods and ServicesIC B . US B . G & S: Inspections of residential and commerical buildings, including inspections of said buildings to determine compliance with environmental regulationsStandard Characters Claimed****Mark Drawing Code**(4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARKSerial Number78741238Filing DateOctober 26, 2005Current Filing Basis1BOriginal Filing Basis1BPublished for OppositionJanuary 15, 2008Owner(APPLICANT) INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CERTIFIED HOME INSPECTORS CORPORATION COLORADO 1750 30TH STREET BOULDER COLORADO 80301Assignment RecordedASSIGNMENT RECORDEDAttorney of RecordMark CohenDisclaimerNO CLAIM IS MADE TO THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO USE CERTIFIED PROFESSIONAL INSPECTOR APART FROM THE MARK AS SHOWNType of MarkCERTIFICATION MARKRegisterPRINCIPALOther DataThe certification mark, as used by persons authorized by the certifier, certifies that the inspections of residential and commercial buildings provided have been performed by an inspector who has met the online examination requirements as established by the certifierLive/Dead IndicatorLIVE

Scott,

How you read that to mean “inspections…to determine compliance with environmental regulations…” ONLY, is beyond me.

The proper interpretation is that the “mark” is for residential and commercial inspections AND “inspections…to determine compliance with environmental regulations…”

David is correct, hence the word “,including…”

Great job Nick et al. what is the next step in the process for granting the CPI?

**Touché :cool:
**

Sorry for misspeaking, you are correct. I missed “including”.

What does the disclaimer mean:

**Disclaimer **NO CLAIM IS MADE TO THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO USE CERTIFIED PROFESSIONAL INSPECTOR APART FROM THE MARK AS SHOWN

Was this added because of all of the other uses of CPI that are listed on the USPTO site?

I would imagine that some objections will be filed with the USPTO over this, as CPI is and has been used by many organizations, even outside of the home inspection profession.

It means that we didn’t procure the mark by making a claim that we control the words “Certified” or “Professional” or “Inspector” individually. This is a normal disclaimer that must be made when an application contains commonly used words so that it is clear we are not asking for exclusive rights to those words… only those words in that particular order “Certified Professional Inspector.”

An example of marks that need not make such a disclaimer are less generic like “Xerox” or “Spandex.”

Scott, the Mark was advertised and the period of opposition is over.

I did not know that. I was going off of what was on the USPTO site. Is says that it was published for opposition on Jan 15, 2008. Not knowing all of the ins and outs of the trademarking world, I would have thought that this would be the start of the notification time.

After reading the rules on the USPTO site I see that opposition must be filed within 30 days of the publish date and then it can proceed up to 180 days. It also has an appeal process that can be used after that period I think they call it a “timeless” period.

Anyway, it is what it is. Congratulations on getting your trademark I’m sure it will useful.

True. Oppositions can go on for what seems to be forever. ASHI has yet to be able to get their “ASHI Experience” application approved as it infringes on our already fully registered “Hi Experience.” We offered to sell ASHI the mark so that they could trademark theirs but ASHI turned us down despite our offer being very reasonable. I don’t think they have the spare cash to buy it from us.

*Hi Experience *BTW, is the name of our advanced online HI-DEF network we are launching http://www.nachi.org/inspectorchannel.htm

Great work Nick. Thanks again.