America-Israel Patent Law Blog

The Israel IP community was left in a state of shock yesterday when it was announced that the victims of an apparent double murder in a home in the Jerusalem suburb of Ramot were Nurit and Noah Maoz.  Nurit was the long-time head of the Trademark Department in the ILPTO and a 34-year veteran of the office.  The funeral is scheduled for Tuesday, August 16 at 5 PM at the Shamgar funeral home in Jerusalem.

As a patent practitioner, I had very few dealings with Ms. Maoz, and never met her in the flesh.  Despite that, I have long had tremendous respect for her work: under her stewardship, at a time when the USPTO was still operating in paper-only mode, Israel’s trademark office became one of the first in the world with a fully searchable online database of registered marks and pending applications, and it likewise was an early adoptee of electronic filing of trademark applications.  Over the years I heard only praises for her and her work from colleagues who dealt with the trademark department on a daily basis.  She will be sorely missed.