Intellectual Property Law

New Rules of Practice Before the BPAI

Posted on February 27, 2012
Back in November, the Office published a final rule detailing changes in the rules of practice before the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences. The changes apply to all ex parte appeals in which the notice of appeal was filed on or after 23 January 2012...

Patent Examiner Positions Posted for Detroit Office

Posted on February 22, 2012
In case anyone missed it in the comment thread below, the Office posted examiner positions for the new Detroit office yesterday. There are openings listed for Mechanical and Electrical Engineers. Both postings are open until March 30th, and both cite 'MANY vacancies'...

Obama Proposes FY2013 PTO Budget of $2.953 Billion

Posted on February 13, 2012
Secretary of Commerce John Bryson distributed an email to Commerce Department employees today, with the details of President Obama's proposed FY2013 budget for the Department.The PTO's proposed budget is set at $2.953 billion, the same as the estimate of the Office's fee collections...

Commenting Problems

Posted on January 17, 2012
As many of you already know, Live Journal has recently changed the interface for commenting.One of the fantastic benefits (mostly for me, but also for readers) is incorporating captcha. This immediately eliminated spam comments, which had been requiring a whole lot of effort to keep under control...

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USPTO To Host Job Fair December 9th and 10th

Posted on November 29, 2011
The PTO distributed an email to the examining corps today, with details of an upcoming job fair. Sounds like the hiring of new examiners is about to begin in earnest.---All USPTO employees are urged to spread the word to individuals interested in entry-level patent examiner positions with room to grow (GS-7 through GS-9) and who have studied or practiced in varied engineering disciplines such as mechanical, computer, chemical, electrical, biomedical, civil and industrial, as well as pharmacology, chemistry, computer science, physics and textile technology positions...

Money!

Posted on November 21, 2011
The Commerce Department budget was passed last week. The $2,706,313,000 that was budgeted to the PTO is expected to cover all of the fees the Office is expected to collect in FY 2011. It should at least give the Office a fair shot of funding the necessary changes that will be needed to implement the provisions of the recently passed American Invents Act...

Yup, They're Hiring Again

Posted on October 28, 2011
The Office is hiring examiners in the following areas:Mechanical Engineering (FEW vacancies)Electrical Engineering (MANY vacancies)Computer Engineering (MANY vacancies)Biomedical Engineering (MANY vacancies).The positions are posted until November 1st, so get those applications in...

Things are Looking Up! (Aren't They?)

Posted on September 19, 2011
Well, lots of good things have been happening in the examining world recently.The CAFC issued its Therasense decision, which will hopefully reduce the number of massive Information Disclosure Statements examiners need to deal with.The examining corps has apparently accomplished its COPA [Clearing the Oldest Patent Applications] goal of completing first actions on 235,000 COPA applications, which has prompted the Office to issue a memo setting new goals of 245,000 and 255,000 first actions before the end of the fiscal year...

Rockin' the PTO

Posted on August 23, 2011
Well, that was certainly fun, wasn't it?I was just minding my own business a little before 2PM when the building started shaking, seriously shaking. I got under a door frame, many others just didn't know what to do. Many people stood at the end of the hall looking out the window...

Thanks, Congress.

Posted on April 26, 2011
Last week, Director Kappos sent an email to the examining corps to advise them of the impact the FY2011 budget passed by Congress would have on the Office.Pretty significant impact, if you ask me.The budget passed by Congress limits the Office to 2.09 billion dollars in spending for the fiscal year, which means that the Office cannot spend 85-100 million dollars of fees they collect...

Screened Blog Comments

Posted on April 26, 2011
Just wanted to apologize for the screening of comments over the past week.I don't log into the blog every day, and do so even less often when I'm not working on a post, when the volume of comments is low (which is not apparent when they are all being screened), or when I'm just plain busy with other things...

PTO: Open For Business (for 6 days, anyway)

Posted on April 07, 2011
Director Kappos sent an email to the examining corps this afternoon, regarding the potential government shutdown and its impact on the USPTO. Looks like we've got a six-day reprieve:---A Message from Director David KapposDear Colleagues,As you know, the Administration is working diligently with Congress to ensure that the federal government remains open and continues to do its work on behalf of the American people...

Clearing the Oldest Patent Applications (COPA)

Posted on March 22, 2011
A memo was distributed to the corps last week regarding a new backlog-fighting effort. [The Office's latest Strategic Plan includes the goal of reducing first action pendency to 10 months by 2014; pretty darn ambitious.]The details haven't been released yet, but the memo did outline how the effort would work...

Recent Goings On at the Office

Posted on January 24, 2011
Some odds and ends.-----USPTO Creates Online Subscription Center as Part of Expanded Communications and Outreach EffortThe Press Release.The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today continued to expand its public outreach efforts with the launch of an online Subscription Center...

The Impact of the New Count System

Posted on January 05, 2011
It's been almost a year now since the Office fully implemented its new count system. (Some provisions took effect in November 2009, the rest in February 2010.)The details of the changes were summarized here.So how are things working out?Well, that's a good question...

Jobs Jobs!

Posted on November 20, 2010
The PTO is hiring again, for a pretty wide variety of patent examining positions.You can find the list here. You can read some more general information about working at the PTO here.Some of the open positions listed appear to have been from back in August, but others still are open until November 23rd.

New Examiner Performance Appraisal Plans

Posted on October 08, 2010
The Task Force put together by management and POPA to study ways to improve the examiners' Performance Appraisal Plans (PAPs) has finished its work. The proposed plans are being introduced to the corps in a series of briefings. The PAP defines the duties for which examiners are responsible, and the metrics by which they are graded...

Count System Initiatives to Continue Through FY2011

Posted on August 31, 2010
The Office distributed a memo today informing the examining corps that the Joint Count System Task Force had arrived at an agreement to continue the new count system [the provisions of which were discussed in a past post] through the end of FY2011.There are two tweaks to the system for next year...

Pre-Appeal Conferences vs. Interviews

Posted on August 30, 2010
Well, since the post I've been trying to write for a couple of weeks hasn't yet come together, I'll throw this stray thought out there.Why would an attorney/applicant go to the time and expense of requesting a pre-appeal conference without first requesting an interview with the examiner?I've seen more than a few instances where the attorney has requested a pre-appeal conference, but the rejection seems solid to both the examiner and the conferees, yet the attorney argues (somewhat unsurprisingly) that the prior art doesn't teach what seems to be there...

New Bilski Guidance and Request for Comments

Posted on July 27, 2010
The office published their Interim Bilski Guidance for Examiners in the Federal Register today. Surprisingly to me, they did so in the form of a Request for Comments.I actually think that this is a great idea. We're hearing pretty much the same thing from both sides of the patent world in the wake of the Bilski decision (e...

699,000

Posted on July 21, 2010
Remember that number.The current new case backlog at the Office is 735,000.The Office has initiated an effort to reduce the new case backlog to 699,000 by the end of the fiscal year (5 bi-weeks from now).Ambitious? You bet. But let's try to quantify how ambitious it actually is...

The Office is Hiring Again

Posted on July 15, 2010
Yes, boys and girls, the Office is finally looking to hire more examiners.The announcements are for Electrical/Computer Engineers and Biomedical Engineers.Although the positions are listed on the USPTO jobs page, for whatever reason the positions are not showing up on the usajobs...

Bilski Fallout

Posted on July 01, 2010
I'll tell you what, I wish I could write 101 rejections with as little supporting analysis as the Supreme Court did in the Bilski decision. A little discussion of precedential caselaw (Benson, Flook and Diehr), some hand-waving, and the conclusion that the claims at issue are drawn to an abstract idea...

Bilski [or lack thereof]

Posted on June 17, 2010
I was firmly convinced that the opinion on Bilski would be issued today.Why? Well, there are [were] only two days remaining in the quarter (three, if you count Saturday), and I've got more than enough to keep me busy without taking a few hours to digest the decision...

USPTO Now on Facebook

Posted on May 24, 2010
It was bound to happen sooner or later, what with the steady advance of social networking. First the Director's Blog, now the Office has a Facebook page.After perusing the thing for a bit, I have to say that it looks pretty useful. Definitely an easier interface to navigate than the USPTO website, depending on the type of information you're interested in.

Changes in Exminers' Hoteling Rules

Posted on March 22, 2010
Hoteling is the program that allows examiners to do their work from home. It is a great benefit for examiners who take advantage of it. It helps out the Office as well, most obviously by freeing up a whole lot of office space on site. This winter, during DC's 'Snowmageddon' versions I and II, it proved a great benefit as hotelers worked throughout the snowstorms, while those working on-site were not able to make it in and lost many days worth of work...

Professionalism

Posted on January 21, 2010
A few days ago, Greg Aharonian of the Internet Patent News Service relayed the following note that a frustrated attorney had sent to Director Kappos:---Dear Mr. Kappos,I have been practicing before the USPTO for 12 years now and have seena lot of ridiculous stuff, but this takes the cake...

Revised Count System

Posted on January 21, 2010
The Office sent an email earlier this week, notifying the corps that the changes to the count system will be taking effect starting on February 14th. (Happy Valentine's Day!)For a while, examiners' production will be tracked under both the old and new count systems, with the examiner being graded based on whichever system works to their advantage...

PTO Calls Former Examiners to Return to the Office

Posted on December 23, 2009
The Patent Office is taking some interesting measures in an effort to reduce the backlog. Last week, the corps received an email detailing plans to offer ex-examiners the opportunity to return to the patent office. From the email:---Faced with a growing backlog and long patent pendency periods in a difficult fiscal environment, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is reaching out to former patent examiners, inviting them to return to the agency...

Limited Time Offer

Posted on November 04, 2009
Effective Sunday, November 8th, the Office's Revised Count System Initiatives will go into effect, except for those initiatives that will require updates to the Office's software systems.Most significantly, that means that the new provisions for the docketing of RCEs will come online...

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