Patent Law

WIPO Publishes New PCT Statistics

Posted on February 22, 2008
On Thursday, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) published a list of statistics related to global Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) patent application filings. As noted in the WIPO news release (link below), the first chart discusses the number of published PCT patent applications by company, with Matsushita (Japan) leading the pack with 2,100 published applications in 2006, with Philips Electronics N...

USPTO Seeks Technological Achievement Award Nominees

Posted on February 21, 2008
The USPTO announced yesterday that it is seeking nominations from the public for innovators to receive recognition for their technological achievements. Each year our President awards the National Medal of Technology and Innovation (NMTI) to those winning leading innovators...

Activision Pursues ?DJ Hero? Trademark Registration

Posted on February 20, 2008
On the heels of the wildly popular ?Guitar Hero? video game, Activision recently filed a trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the mark ?DJ HERO.? As reported by Trademork (link below), this appears to be related to the first peripheral aside from the gaming guitars to be pursued by Activision...

DDIP Blog Vacation

Posted on February 12, 2008
Posts on the DDIP Blog will resume on Wednesday, February 20th. Thanks for visiting!

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Calendar of WIPO Events ? February, 2008

Posted on February 07, 2008
As previously referenced by the DDIP blog, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) makes available a calendar of conferences, meetings, and seminars, in Geneva, Switzerland, and elsewhere, along with event documentation when available. The following international WIPO events are scheduled for February, 2008:February 4 and 5 - ?International Patent Classification (IPC) Workshop? (IPC/WK/GE/08) in Geneva, Switzerland...

USPTO Proposed FY2009 Budget Announced

Posted on February 06, 2008
On Monday, the USPTO announced its request of a $2B+ budget for FY2009, marking the first time the $2 billion level has been requested by the office. The FY2009 request of $2.075 billion represents an 8% increase over the FY2008 level of $1.916 billion, and as referenced within the USPTO announcement (link below), this budget proposal will support the anticipated hire of 1,200 patent examiners during that period and will allow for the expansion of web-based business transactions with the USPTO...

Patent Reform Act Teleconference Scheduled for Today

Posted on February 05, 2008
Starting at 10:30AM today, the USPTO will be holding a conference call to discuss details regarding the Patent Reform Act of 2007. This teleconference, highlighted by Jon Dudas, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO, will include a discussion on the Bush administration?s position on S...

EP Translation Requirements to Ease on May 1st

Posted on February 01, 2008
By Bill Lyon, Ph.D.The London Agreement, which was originally crafted in October, 2000, to curb the costs of acquiring patent rights in member countries of the European Patent Organization ("EPO"), was ratified on January 29, 2008, and will go into force on May 1, 2008...

Controversial Patent Upheld in Amended Form

Posted on January 31, 2008
In a recent article, the European Patent Office (?EPO?) announced that its opposition division has maintained the existence of the ?frozen sperm? patent owned by XY Inc. in Colorado. In the announcement (link below), the EPO announced that European Patent No...

WIPO Highlights Upcoming Dubai IP Conference

Posted on January 30, 2008
In a recent press release, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) highlighted its upcoming conference in Dubai to emphasize its strong concern regarding counterfeiting and piracy. As noted in the WIPO press announcement (link below), ?The Fourth Global Congress on Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy? will be held from February 3-5, 2008, including governmental officials from Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, WIPO, and ?representatives of other international intergovernmental organizations, governments, regional and national enforcement agencies and business [] to identify solutions to the escalating problems of counterfeiting and piracy...

UK to Allow Computer Software Patents?

Posted on January 28, 2008
A ruling by the UK High Court appears to have paved a way for expanded patent protection in the UK similar to that generally available by the European Patent Office (?EPO?). In November, 2006, the UK Intellectual Property Office (?UK IPO?) issued a ?practice note? to state that computer programs alone generally did not constitute patentable subject matter...

CAFC Comments on use of ?a? and ?the? in Claims

Posted on January 24, 2008
Earlier this month, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (?CAFC?) decided an appeal based upon the use of commonly-used claim terminology, affirming-in-part, reversing-in-part, and remanding the case back to the district court. In Baldwin Graphic Systems, Inc...

USPTO Announces New Duty of Disclosure Declaration Requirement

Posted on January 23, 2008
The USPTO announced yesterday that as of June 1, 2008, it will no longer accept an oath or declaration as complying with 37 C.F.R. § 1.63(b)(3) unless it includes an acknowledgment that the declarant has a duty to disclose information material to patentability under 37 C...

CIPO Announces Revisions to Online Filings

Posted on January 21, 2008
On Friday, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) announced a few revisions to its online filing procedure, providing applicants with additional flexibility during the process. According to the CIPO news release (link below), the CIPO online patent application allows applicants ?who intend to claim small entity status? to sign the petition electronically with a ?low level signature,? noting that the low level signature allows the applicant to ?sign? a special section of the form...

USPTO Issues Several Patent Prosecution Highway Notices

Posted on January 18, 2008
The USPTO released a trio of notices this week regarding a specific aspect of its 21st Century Strategic plan, namely a procedure to partner with other intellectual property office to share search results and reduce the duplication of efforts. One particular procedure, the Patent Prosecution Highway (?PPH?), has had noted pilot successes and appears to be quickly expanding...

EPO Issues Warning Regarding Patent Registration Organizations

Posted on January 16, 2008
Although this particular warning was first issued in June, 2006, the European Patent Office re-issued an updated warning to patent applications regarding solicitations from patent registration organizations. The reissued warning (from January 8, 2008, noting the original June 29, 2006, warning date ? link below) notes that ?[n]umerous applicants and patent proprietors have informed the European Patent Office that firms and individuals using names, abbreviations or emblems that appear to be official have been inviting them to register patents in unofficial registers or publications...

USPTO Confirms Reasons Behind reCAPTCHA

Posted on January 14, 2008
On Friday, the USPTO issued a press release confirming my earlier post (January 4, 2008, link below) regarding the implementation of the reCAPTCHA system. According to the USPTO press release (link below), ?[t]he reCAPTCHA deployment was an immediate response to a system outage problem caused by bots...

Calendar of WIPO Events ? January, 2008

Posted on January 10, 2008
As previously referenced by the DDIP blog in December, 2007, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) makes available a calendar of conferences, meetings, and seminars, in Geneva, Switzerland, and elsewhere, along with event documentation when available...

You?re Welcome

Posted on January 09, 2008
If you have ever conducted patent business with the USPTO through its EFS-Web system and provided the USPTO with your e-mail address, you likely received a letter of gratitude from the Commissioner of Patents himself. John Doll, the present Commissioner of Patents for the USPTO, praised its e-Commerce customers, noting in part that ?[t]he success of our electronic filing system, EFS-Web, could not have been achieved without the dedication, patience, time and effort contributed by our customers and stakeholders...

How Quickly Are We Obtaining Patents?

Posted on January 07, 2008
Back in October, 2006, I compiled data regarding how quickly the U.S. Patent Office issues utility patents (link below). I began with the issue date of U.S. Patent No. 4,000,000 (December 28, 1976), and looked at how many days it took to issue the next 100,000 patents...

USPTO Implements Technology to Curb "Disruptive Use" of Public PAIR

Posted on January 04, 2008
Starting this month, the USPTO has implemented a new technology on its website in an attempt to curb "disruptive use" of at least one of its online databases. If you are a heavy user of USPTO database resources like I am, you likely also experienced a number of instances in the past couple of months where Public PAIR was either extremely slow or completely inaccessible...

USPTO Announces Changes in Publication Format

Posted on January 02, 2008
As noted in the December 26, 2007, Federal Register (link below), the USPTO has decided to revise some of its publication formats effective January 1, 2008. Specifically, the USPTO has discontinued its separate weekly publication of USPTO notices in paper form, and it has also discontinued its annual publication of the consolidated listing of notices pertaining to USPTO practices and procedures, which was also published in paper form...

The Daily Dose of IP blog will resume on Wednesday, January 2nd - Have a Safe and Happy New Year!

Posted on December 28, 2007
As noted in the December 26, 2007, Federal Register (link below), the USPTO has decided to revise some of its publication formats effective January 1, 2008. Specifically, the USPTO has discontinued its separate weekly publication of USPTO notices in paper form, and it has also discontinued its annual publication of the consolidated listing of notices pertaining to USPTO practices and procedures, which was also published in paper form...

So?Who Really Invented the Telephone?

Posted on December 27, 2007
As noted by a recent Associated Press article via Yahoo! News (link below), a new book appears to provide ?definitive evidence? that Alexander Graham Bell, the man recognized as being the inventor of the telephone, actually obtained his ideas from a rival inventor, Elisha Gray...

USPTO-JPO PPH Goes FT

Posted on December 26, 2007
It was recently announced that a joint effort between the USPTO and the Japanese Patent Office (JPO), the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), will soon be implemented on a full-time basis. The PPH effort began in July, 2006, as an initial feasibility study, and after noted successes by both office leaders, the program is scheduled to go full-time on January 4, 2008, one day after the initial part-time trial is scheduled to end...

The Daily Dose of IP blog will resume on Wednesday, December 26th - Happy Holidays!

Posted on December 21, 2007
It was recently announced that a joint effort between the USPTO and the Japanese Patent Office (JPO), the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), will soon be implemented on a full-time basis. The PPH effort began in July, 2006, as an initial feasibility study, and after noted successes by both office leaders, the program is scheduled to go full-time on January 4, 2008, one day after the initial part-time trial is scheduled to end...

Recent Forum Focused on IP for LDC Development

Posted on December 19, 2007
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recently held a forum whereby ministers and a number of top officials from several least developed countries (LDCs) discussed the potential impact on intellectual property as a ?strategic tool? for helping those countries advance...

Netherlands to Phase-out Six-year Patent

Posted on December 17, 2007
It was recently announced that amendments to the Netherlands Patent Act of 1995 and the Implementation Decree of 1995 are undergoing a review and potential amendments, one of which is the discontinuation of the six-year patent. Aside from other changes (including the future ability to file Dutch applications in English and a number of fee changes as described in the Netherlands Patent Office link below), the Dutch six-year patent, which is generally granted without prior examination, is being phased out ?because the users feel that it offers to little legal security...

Is Christmas Eve a USPTO Holiday?

Posted on December 14, 2007
The USPTO announced today that it will indeed be closed on Christmas Eve (Monday, December 24th), and since Christmas Day (Tuesday, December 25th) is a traditional Federal holiday, any action or fees due on those two days and on Saturday, December 22nd, and Sunday, December 23rd, will now be due on Wednesday, December 26th...

WIPO Calendar & Document Search

Posted on December 13, 2007
While browsing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) website looking for something of particular interest to write about, I came across the ?Conferences, Meetings and Seminars? webpage. This particular webpage ?provides access to information about meetings held at WIPO and related documents comprising a detailed meeting calendar and a powerful document search facility...

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