Received interrogatories, document & admission requests in TTAB inter partes proceeding without signature. Is it required?

Signatures should appear on discovery requests and responses. However, the absence of a signature on a discovery request is just a technicality, and would not excuse failure to respond to the requests. The signature requirement is much more important with respect to responses to discovery requests. If you received unsigned discovery requests, you would be making a major mistake if you just disregarded them because they were unsigned. That would be, frankly, insane. Discovery is supposed to be an informal, cooperative process between the parties. If you find that a signature is missing, the correct approach is to call your adversary and request that he provide a signature and/or send an e-mail certifying that he did, in fact, send the request. You are supposed to cooperate in discovery, not obstruct based on technicalities. Even more importantly, however, if you are attempting to handle a TTAB matter without counsel you are making a major mistake. You obviously are going to get lost in the technicalities, without understanding how the system works.

Knowing what technicalities are important is what legal training is all about. I agree with my colleague that failure to respond on these technicalities would be a mistake. TTAB proceedings are not a question of the "plain meaning" of the statutes.