Patent Law

"it feels better to reject than to allow, simply because it's more conclusive"

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

and

Making the decision to allow an application, though, is somewhat less conclusive. Sure, once I've done a thorough search and satisfied myself that I've found the best prior art available, I'm not reluctant to allow an application (OPQA be damned!)

Still, who knows what unavailable prior art might be out there? Some hardcopy of a journal that is sitting in some school's technical library in Boise? Perhaps an advertisement in a newspaper on microfiche in Berlin?

and

Obviously, you have to stop searching sometime. (The count system makes sure of that.) When you do, you just have to trust yourself that you've found the best art that is out there and allow the thing.

Query: Once David Kappos is director of the USPTO, what can he do to improve the effectiveness of searches for "just-n-examiner"? Can he change the count system so there's more time to search? Can he make the library in Boise more available?

Stay tuned.

Full post as published by IPBiz on July 23, 2009 (boomark / email).