Category: Patent Office Rules & Procedures

By Donald Zuhn — Last month, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, exercising the new fee setting authority conferred upon the Office by § 10 of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, submitted a table of patent fee changes to the Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC).  The proposed fee changes were submitted to the PPAC in…

By Donald Zuhn — Earlier this month, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that the Office and eight other patent offices had agreed to implement an enhanced Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot program.  The new pilot builds off an enhanced PPH framework that went into effect in July (see "USPTO Expands Patent Prosecution Highway").…

By Donald Zuhn — USPTO Leadership to Host Webinar on Tuesday The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced last week that senior agency officials would be hosting a free public webinar on Tuesday, February 21 at 4:30 pm (ET).  The webinar will be moderated by Peter Pappas, Chief of Staff for the Office of the…

    By Kevin E. Noonan — The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office held the first of two planned hearings aimed at fulfilling one of the reporting provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (see "USPTO to Hold Hearing on Genetic Diagnostic Testing").  Section 27 of the Act requires the Office to conduct a study regarding…

Patent Docs author Dr. Kevin Noonan (at right) gave the following testimony at today's USPTO hearing on genetic diagnostic testing: I want to thank the organizers for inviting me to testify today. This study by the PTO is important because it should give the Office the opportunity to determine whether there is any evidence that…

By Donald Zuhn — On Thursday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will hold the first of two hearings on independent second opinion genetic diagnostic testing where patents and exclusive licenses exist that cover primary genetic diagnostic tests.  The Office is holding the hearings to collect information for the preparation of a report to Congress…

By Donald Zuhn — Last November, officials from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office indicated that ten notices of proposed rulemaking to implement various provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act were being drafted and vetted by the Office, and that the notices would be published in January 2012 (see "USPTO News Briefs").  By the…

By Andrew Williams — On January 25, 2012, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published its notice of proposed rulemaking to implement the supplemental examination provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act ("the AIA") (77 Fed. Reg. 3666).  This is one of the ten notices that the Office plans to publish to implement the various…

By Donald Zuhn — Last month, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it was extending its Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot program based on Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) work products (i.e., PCT-PPH pilot program) with the European Patent Office for two more years.  The USPTO similarly announced that it was extending the PCT-PPH…

By Donald Zuhn — On Monday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a notice in the Federal Register (77 Fed. Reg. 4509) announcing that the Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC) will be holding two public hearings in February regarding proposed patent fees.  The public hearings are being held pursuant to § 10 of the…