Category: Patent Office Rules & Procedures

By Donald Zuhn — In the past week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has published two Federal Register notices to implement technical corrections to the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act.  On Monday, the Office issued an interim final rule (78 Fed. Reg. 19416) that revises the rules of practice to implement changes to the patent…

By Donald Zuhn — USPTO Extends Comment Period on Notice Regarding Preparation of Patent Applications In January, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a notice in the Federal Register (78 Fed. Reg. 2960) requesting public comment regarding potential practices that applicants can employ in the drafting of patent applications to facilitate examination and bring…

By Donald Zuhn — USPTO Modifies PKI Subscriber Agreement On February 11, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office distributed a Patents Alert e-mail in which the Office noted that the Public Key Infrastructure ("PKI") Subscriber Agreement had been modified such that PKI certificate holders are strictly prohibited from using Private PAIR to access any nonpublic…

By Donald Zuhn — In a press release issued earlier today, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that examination guidelines and the final rule for implementing the first-inventor-to-file (FITF) provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) would be published in the Federal Register on February 14 — thirty days before the FITF provisions…

By Donald Zuhn — In December, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a notice in the Federal Register (77 Fed. Reg. 72830) seeking public feedback on Request for Continued Examination (RCE) practice.  The notice provided a series of questions for which the Office specifically was seeking comment: (1) If within your practice you file…

By Donald Zuhn –  USPTO Seeks Comments on Patent Law Harmonization Last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a notice in the Federal Register (78 Fed. Reg. 7411) seeking comments on matters related to the harmonization of substantive patent law.  In particular, the Office indicated that it was seeking input from the public…

By Donald Zuhn — Last Friday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a final rule in the Federal Register (78 Fed. Reg. 4212) setting and adjusting certain patent fees pursuant to the Office's fee-setting authority under § 10 of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act.  The publication of the 80-page final rule (nearly) culminates a…

By Donald Zuhn — The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a notice in the Federal Register (78 Fed. Reg. 2960) earlier today requesting public comment regarding potential practices that applicants can employ in the drafting of patent applications to facilitate examination and bring more certainty to the scope of issued patents.  Although the instant…

By Donald Zuhn — In a Federal Register notice published earlier today (78 Fed. Reg. 2256), the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that the Extended Missing Parts Pilot Program that was implemented two years ago would be extended for another year.  The pilot program allows applicants to request a twelve-month extension to pay the…