Patent Law Weblog
recent posts
- Reasons for the PTAB’s Priority Determination in Broad’s Favor (Perhaps)
- Mexico Publishes Amendments to Intellectual Property Law
- PTAB (Again) Awards Priority of Invention to Broad in Interference No. 106,115
- Argentina Repeals Pharmaceutical Patent Examination Guidelines
- USPTO Moves to Protect Design Rights for Digital Innovations
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Category: Patent Office Rules & Procedures
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By Donald Zuhn — On Friday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it was revising the requirements for requesting participation in the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) programs with seven other patent offices. The PPH programs being affected by the changes are those between the USPTO and the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO), IP…
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By Donald Zuhn — The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently announced the expansion or implementation of Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot programs with the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), Swedish Patent and Registration Office (PRV), Nordic Patent Institute (NPI), and Israel Patent Office (ILPO). With the addition of these new pilot programs, the USPTO…
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By Donald Zuhn — In a statement released earlier today, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it was "carefully studying" the Federal Circuit's "important" en banc decision in Therasense, Inc. v. Becton, Dickinson & Co. to assess its impact on agency practice and procedure, and expected to issue guidance regarding that impact "soon." …
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By Donald Zuhn — The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced today that it is expanding the Enhanced First Action Interview pilot program to include all utility applications in all technology areas and filing dates. Like its predecessor programs, under the Full First Action Interview pilot program, an applicant is entitled to a first action…
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By Donald Zuhn — Last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a notice in the Federal Register (76 Fed. Reg. 22854) proposing a number of changes to ex parte and inter partes reexamination proceedings. In addition, the USPTO announced that it was seeking public comment regarding the proposed changes and that the Office…
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By Donald Zuhn — In a short, two-column notice published on Friday in the Federal Register (76 Fed. Reg. 23876), the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office reiterated that the effective date for implementation of the prioritized examination (or Track I) portion of the Enhanced Examination Timing Control Initiative has been delayed until further notice. Under…
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By Donald Zuhn — USPTO Announces Postponement of Track 1 Examination (Again) On April 21, USPTO Director David Kappos sent a message to Patent Office employees, notifying them that "[t]he Track One expedited patent examination program, scheduled to go into effect on May 4, 2011, is postponed until further notice." Last Friday, the Intellectual Property…
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By Donald Zuhn — On Friday, USPTO Director David Kappos addressed the impact of budgetary constraints on some of the Patent Office's plans for the coming year. He did so on his Director's Forum blog, where the Director (at right) noted that following enactment of the budget for FY 2011 on April 15, the Office's…
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By Donald Zuhn — Launch of Prioritized (Track 1) Examination Postponed Earlier this month, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it would begin accepting requests for prioritized examination of patent applications (i.e., the Track 1 portion of the Enhanced Examination Timing Control Initiative outlined in a Federal Register notice in June 2010) on…
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By Donald Zuhn — On March 31, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it was implementing a new e-Petitions system and that eight different petitions would initially be made available through the system. The e-Petitions system automates the petitions process so that applicants can input the requisite data into a secure web interface…
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