Patent Law

USPTO: More Time to Comment on Deferred Patent Examination System

By Stephen Albainy-Jenei

The USPTO published a notice in the Federal Register that extends the period for public comment on deferred examination until May 29, 2009.  You now have plenty of time to put together that pithy memorandum with your thoughts on why the Patent Office should or should not park patent applications on a shelf for years in order to reduce their workload (known as the sweeping it under the rug maneuver).

Earlier, the USPTO hosted a roundtable discussion on the subject of deferred examination to get public input on the practice from diverse sources and differing view points. Participants included representatives from the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Bar Association (ABA) and the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), as well as members of academia and numerous IP attorneys.

Whether you think that a a deferred examination system would actually provide relief to the patent application backlog or would give rise to even more work  — and whether you think comments submitted will have any effect or not — you can submit comments should by electronic mail message over the Internet addressed to AC6comments@uspto.gov.

For more information, click here to see the Federal Register notice.

You can now see a fun-filled video of the roundtable discussion here.

Full post as published by Patent Baristas on March 10, 2009 (boomark / email).