Patent Law Weblog
recent posts
- Argentina Repeals Pharmaceutical Patent Examination Guidelines
- 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
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Category: Patent Office Rules & Procedures
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By Kevin E. Noonan – The value of the post-grant review programs (post-grant review, inter partes review, and covered business methods review) has been debated since these provisions were enacted as part of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act in 2012. Indeed, the legal status of these review programs under the U.S. Constitution has been challenged in…
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The Department of Commerce announced late today that Secretary Wilbur Ross has named Joseph Matal as Interim USPTO Director. Mr. Matal is currently Associate Solicitor General in the Office, and worked as a staffer for Senators Kyl, Sessions, and Fitzgerald. He also wrote a monograph describing the legislative history of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — Several news outlets are reporting that Michelle Lee, Undersecretary of Commerce and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, has resigned. Director Lee submitted a her resignation to the Trump Administration in January but almost immediately withdrew it, and has remained as a holdover from the Obama Administration since…
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By Donald Zuhn — Last month, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office posted a notice on its website announcing the formation of a Working Group on Regulatory Reform "to consider, review, and recommend ways that USPTO regulations can be improved, revised, and streamlined." Members of the Working Group will be familiar with all of the…
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By Donald Zuhn — USPTO Enhances Transaction Security for Deposit Account Authorizations The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced today via a USPTO Alert e-mail that effective Wednesday, March 15, 2017, any charge to a deposit account appearing on any paper filed by mail, facsimile transmission, or via the EFS-Web, Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS),…
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By Donald Zuhn — In January, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced the addition of several new features to its patent data visualization and analysis tool, PatentsView, which allows the public to interactively engage, through a web-based platform, with a database connecting 40 years of information about inventors, their organizations, and their locations. The…
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By Donald Zuhn — USPTO Announces Expansion of eMod Text Pilot In August 2015, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it would begin implementing a new system that would eventually replace the EFS-Web, Public PAIR, and Private PAIR (see "USPTO News Briefs," August 9, 2015). According to the Office, the new initiative, eCommerce…
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By Donald Zuhn — Last month, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a notice in the Federal Register (82 Fed. Reg. 3758) requesting comments from stakeholders regarding whether the accelerated examination program should be retained or discontinued. The Office notes that while the accelerated examination program, which was implemented in August 2006, was once…
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By Donald Zuhn — The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently released its Performance and Accountability Report Fiscal Year 2016. In describing the USPTO's strategic and performance-planning framework, the 2016 report reminds readers that the Office issued a new strategic plan in 2014, the 2014-2018 Strategic Plan. The report reiterates that the 2014-2018 Strategic Plan…
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By Michael Borella — As discussed in a previous article, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently published new subject matter eligibility examples directed to the abstract idea exception to patentability under 35 U.S.C. § 101. These "December 2016 examples" each involve a so-called business method. Business methods have, in general, been looked down upon by…
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