Patent Law Weblog
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- USPTO Moves to Protect Design Rights for Digital Innovations
- Judicial Conduct and Disability Committee Has Its Say, Denies Judge Newman’s Latest Request for Review
- PTAB Issues Judgment on Priority in CRISPR Interference
- Parties File Supplemental Priority Statements in CRISPR Interference
- Why the Alice Test is Stupid, Part V: The Goalposts Keep Moving
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Category: Patent Office Rules & Procedures
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By Michael Borella — On January 7, 2019, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published updated examination guidance, instructing the examining corps and the PTAB how they should apply 35 U.S.C. § 101. On the same day, the USPTO also published the latest in its series of examples of how this application of the §…
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By Donald Zuhn –- With reports of between 6 and 11 inches of snow having fallen in parts of Maryland and Northern Virginia, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced a closure for Monday, January 14, 2019, of Federal offices in the Washington, DC area. The OPM also announced that emergency employees and telework…
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By Michael Borella — On January 4, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published updated examination guidance regarding the subject matter eligibility of inventions involving abstract ideas. The guidance went into effect on January 7, upon its publication in the Federal Register. In substance, the new guidance falls in line with statements made previously by USPTO…
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By Donald Zuhn –- After reflecting upon the events of the past twelve months, Patent Docs presents its 12th annual list of top patent stories. For 2018, we identified fifteen stories that were covered on Patent Docs last year that we believe had (or are likely to have) a significant impact on patent practitioners and…
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By Donald Zuhn — Practitioners who have been putting off migrating their current PKI digital certificates to their USPTO.gov accounts or sponsoring support staff received an early holiday gift from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Friday (in addition to the Office's designation of Christmas Eve as a "Federal holiday within the District of…
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By Donald Zuhn — As reported by numerous media outlets (see "Partial government shutdown likely to continue until after Christmas"), the U.S. Senate adjourned this afternoon without coming to an agreement on a continuing resolution to fund the United States Government. The government shutdown is the third shutdown of the federal government this year. While…
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By Donald Zuhn — Last month, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Andrei Iancu issued a notice on the "Authentication Changes for Registered Users of EFS-Web and Private PAIR." Although most of the information provided in the Director's notice had been previously provided by the Office earlier this year (see "USPTO Moving to New Authentication…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has released its 2018-2022 Strategic Plan, the first under new Director Andrew Iancu. Director Iancu provides an introductory Message in which he cites the grant of U.S. Patent No. 10,000,000 on June 19th of this year that "authenticates the brilliance of our Founding Fathers…
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By Donald Zuhn –- In a Notification published in the Federal Register earlier this month (83 Fed. Reg. 55102), the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced the implementation of an interim procedure for patentees to request recalculation of Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) determinations for alleged errors due to the Office's failure to recognize that an…
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By Donald Zuhn –- USPTO Introduces New Homepage In a USPTO Alert e-mail distributed today, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced the release of a new homepage, which the Office indicated was "part of a larger effort to improve the public's online experience with our agency." The Office noted that the new homepage includes…
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