Patent Law

USPTO Comments on International Applications with Improperly Chosen ISAs

Posted on March 18, 2009
On Friday, the USPTO issued an announcement regarding a "significant number of international applications" filed in the U.S. Receiving Office under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) that were filed with a chosen International Searching Authority (ISA) that is not competent to review the subject matter of the claimed invention...

USPTO Extends Deferred Examination Comment Window

Posted on March 10, 2009
In yesterday?s Federal Register, the USPTO announced that it has extending its comment window regarding deferred examination "to provide interested members of the public with an additional opportunity to view the Webcast before submitting comments to the USPTO...

EPO President Decides Electronic Filing Matters

Posted on March 05, 2009

USPTO Seeking NMTI Nominations

Posted on March 03, 2009

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EPO Seeks Comments on Patentability of Computer Programs

Posted on February 25, 2009
The European Patent Office (EPO) recently announced that its Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) is accepting written statements regarding pending referral G 3/08 pertaining to the patentability of computer programs. Third parties to the appeal have until the deadline of April 30, 2009 to submit written comments and any new cited documents in connection with the following four referred questions:1...

2007 EPO Patent Statistics Now Available

Posted on February 19, 2009
The European Patent Office (EPO) announced yesterday on its website that its annual compilation of patent statistics has been completed and is publicly available for the year 2007. According to the EPO announcement (first link below), the statistics include the following:- the number of European patent applications filed per technical domain and origin- the number of European patents granted per technical domain and origin- the most active patent filersStatistical data, based upon extracts from the EPO?s monitoring database EPASYS, is available for the following categories:1...

CIPO Changes TOB Practice

Posted on February 16, 2009
The Canadian Intellectual Property Office ("CIPO") recently announced that its Trade-marks Opposition Board will be revising its procedures effective March 31, 2009. According to the CIPO announcement (link below), the new practice is provided in a formal notice entitled "Practice in Trademark Opposition Proceedings," with changes including (quoted directly from the announcement):- "Simplifying and clarifying the Registrar's benchmarks for granting extensions of time...

PPAC Committee Meeting to be Webcast this Friday

Posted on February 12, 2009
On Friday, February 13th, the USPTO will be providing to the public, via webcast, the public sessions of the next Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC) meeting. The actual meeting, held at USPTO headquarters in Alexandria, VA, will commence at 9:30am local time and will continue to 3:00pm, with a public stream of the event available at a specific USPTO webpage (link provided below)...

WIPO Meeting to Discuss IP as a Financing Tool

Posted on February 09, 2009
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) announced last week that it will be holding a meeting next month at WIPO headquarters to discuss the use if intellectual property (IP) assets as a tool to raise financing. This meeting, to be held on March 10, 2009, will discuss using IP assets, namely "copyright, patents, trademarks, designs ? as collateral, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises which depend on know-how and IP assets to bolster company value" as referenced within the WIPO press release (link below)...

USPTO Concludes Continuing Education Pilot Program

Posted on February 05, 2009
On Monday, the USPTO announced that it "successfully" tested the delivery of its own continuing education materials to patent practitioners through its Learning Management System. Last fall, the USPTO allowed over 850 patent attorneys and agents to participate in the pilot program, which included courses on how the USPTO handles patent applications post-KSR, common errors made by patent practitioners in petitions practice, and how the USPTO handles electronic signatures and powers of attorney...

USPTO to Host Deferred Patent Examination Roundtable

Posted on February 03, 2009
In the January 28, 2009 Federal Register, the USPTO announced that it will be hosting a roundtable event to discuss the topic of deferred patent examination. According to the Federal Register (excerpt link below), the roundtable will be held on February 12, 2009, from 9 a...

USPTO/KIPO PPH Now Permanent

Posted on January 30, 2009
The USPTO and the Korean Intellectual Property Office ("KIPO") collectively announced that their original pilot Patent Prosecution Highway ("PPH") program will be implemented full time starting on January 29, 2009. According to the USPTO, and under this PPH, "an applicant receiving a ruling from either the KIPO or the USPTO that at least one claim in an application is patentable may request that the corresponding application filed at the other office advanced out of turn for examination," and "[b]y basing the prosecution in the second office on patentable results from the first office, applicants can expect to obtain patents in both offices faster...

EPO Announces New Fee Structure Effective April 1, 2009

Posted on January 27, 2009
On Monday, the European Patent Office (EPO) provided a formal notice via the EPO website regarding significant changes to its current fee structure. According to the EPO, "Those aspects of the new fee structure described under points 3.1 to 3.4 below (two-tier structure of claims fees, additional fee on filing, flat designation fee, flat fee for grant and publication) apply to European patent applications, including European divisional applications and new applications under Article 61(1)(b) EPC, filed on or after 1 April 2009 and to international applications entering the regional phase on or after that date...

JPO Updates Patent Guidelines

Posted on January 23, 2009
The Japanese Patent Office ("JPO") announced yesterday that it has revised its "Examination Guidelines for Patent and Utility Model" having an original effective date of December 28, 2000. Japanese Guidelines are provided within ten distinct parts, including Specification, Requirements for Patentability, Amendment of Specification and Drawings, Priority, Special Application, Patent Term Extension, Examination Guidelines for Inventions in Specific Fields, Foreign Language Application, Procedure of Examination, and Utility Model...

Monday AND Tuesday are USPTO Holidays

Posted on January 19, 2009
If you electronically filed any patent documentation through EFS-Web last week, you likely saw the following notice:"Advisory (9JAN2009): January 19-20, 2009 are Federal holidays within the District of Columbia, under 35 U.S.C. 21(b) because January 19, 2009 is Martin Luther King, Jr?s birthday and January 20, 2009 is Inauguration Day...

EPO to Replace Corrupt U.S. Assignment Data

Posted on January 14, 2009
On Friday, the European Patent Office (EPO) announced that due to a number of corrupt U.S. assignment records within the PRS legal status database (espacenet/OPS), each of the over 6.4 million assignment records will be deleted from the system next week and replaced with reloaded assignment data the first or second week in February...

UPDATE - Additional USPTO Fee Changes Take Effect Today

Posted on January 12, 2009
As noted in my previous blog post, the USPTO introduced seven (7) patent fee changes effective January 1, 2009. As noted in a recently-updated fee schedule taking effect today (January 12, 2009), three (3) additional fee changes have been implemented, also impacting PCT applications filed with the U...

New USPTO Fees Took Effect January 1

Posted on January 08, 2009
On January 1, 2009, seven USPTO patent fee changes became effective, including six fee decreases and only one fee increase. Each of these fee changes fall within the "PCT Fees to Foreign Offices" section of the USPTO fee schedule, and include fees applicable to filing PCT applications with the U...

Macedonia Accedes to EPC

Posted on January 07, 2009
On January 1, 2009, the Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia became a member of the European Patent Organisation after its ratification of the European Patent Convention. As noted within the recent European Patent Office (EPO) press release (link below), "The European Patent Organisation's members now include all 27 EU member states plus Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey...

U.S. Copyright Office Seeking Comments on Proposed Exempted Classes of Works

Posted on January 06, 2009
The U.S. Copyright Office recently announced that it is soliciting comments on proposed exemptions in rulemaking on exemption from prohibition on circumvention of technological measures that control access to works. In its announcement (first link below), "[i]n its triennial rulemaking proceeding regarding possible exemption by the Librarian of Congress of certain classes of works from the prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works, the Copyright Office has received 19 proposals for classes of works to be subject to exemptions...

DDIP Tidbits ? 01/05/2009

Posted on January 05, 2009
1. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has posted its final volume of the WIPO Magazine (no. 6, November/December 2008) on its website. Some highlighted articles include a summary of the various WIPO member state assembly meetings in 2008, a construction update regarding the status of the new WIPO facility, and commentary regarding software patentability...

Happy Holidays!

Posted on December 22, 2008
div align="justify"Posts on the Daily Dose of IP will resume after the holidays on Monday, January 5, 2009. Have a happy and safe holiday and new year, and thanks for reading the DDIP blog! /div

New BPAI Rules on Hold

Posted on December 12, 2008
The USPTO recently announced that the implementation of its new rules regarding practice before the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI) in ex parte appeals were placed on hold. These new rules, as outlined in the first Federal Register excerpt (link below), include changes to clarify that the BPAI is not a tribunal for de novo examination, procedures to determine whether an appellant has established that the Examiner on the case has erred (requiring the appellant to explain why the Examiner has erred, noting that arguments not made are waived), the replacement of a ?summary of the invention? section with a claims and drawing analysis and a means or step plus function analysis, limitations of 30 page briefs (excluding some required items), and others...

DDIP Tidbits ? 12/09/2008

Posted on December 09, 2008
1. The recent World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications (SCT) meeting concluded late last week, which focused on non-traditional marks (3D marks, color marks, hologram marks, etc...

Crocs, Skechers Settle Patent Dispute

Posted on December 04, 2008
It was recently announced that the makers of Crocs and Skechers footwear have settled their dispute initiated earlier this year by Crocs Inc. According to the Rocky Mountain News article (link below), Crocs Inc. filed suit this past July claiming that certain styles of footwear manufactured by Skechers USA Inc...

USPTO Expands TMOG Archive

Posted on December 03, 2008
Last Friday, the USPTO announced that it is expanding its archive of online weekly issues of the Trademark Official Gazette (?TMOG?) available via the USPTO website. Prior to this expansion to a full year (52 issues) of the TMOG, only the last five issues were available at any given time...

WIPO to Host Life Sciences Symposium

Posted on December 01, 2008
Next month, the World Intellectual Property Organization (?WIPO?) will be hosting a life sciences symposium regarding the various national and institutional options for life sciences public sector IP management. According to the WIPO press release (link below), this seminar, to be held on December 15, 2008 in Geneva, Switzerland, the symposium ?will explore different national approaches, institutional policies and public-private partnerships, with a view to learning from practical experience,? providing ?informal discussion on these themes with the aim of reviewing the central issues in public sector IP management in the life sciences...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted on November 26, 2008
The DDIP blog will resume after the Thanksgiving holiday on Monday, December 1, 2008. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

USPTO Introduces Practitioner Maintenance Fee

Posted on November 21, 2008
The USPTO announced earlier this week that it will be implementing an annual $118 practitioner maintenance fee for active patent agents and attorneys starting in 2009 "[c]onsistent with its commitment to e-government initiatives and promoting high standards of practice" before the USPTO...

The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Accedes to the EPC

Posted on November 17, 2008
The European Patent Office (?EPO?) recently announced that on October 28, 2008, the Government of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has requested to become part of the European Patent Convention (?EPC?) by depositing its formal instrument of accession...

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