Category: Patent Office Rules & Procedures

By Donald Zuhn — Earlier today, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office commemorated the 30th anniversary of the Bayh-Dole Act with a special program at its headquarters in Alexandria, VA.  The program featured congressional leaders who were instrumental in the passage of the legislation, including former Senator Birch Bayh (D-IN) and former Representative Robert Kastenmeier…

By Donald Zuhn — Trilateral Offices Reaffirm Commitments The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently announced that the leaders of the USPTO, European Patent Office (EPO), and Japan Patent Office (JPO) — or the Trilateral Offices — reaffirmed their commitments at the 28th Annual Trilateral Conference in November.  The conference, which was held at USPTO…

By Donald Zuhn — On Monday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it was extending the deadline for the Project Exchange program.  Under the Project Exchange program, an applicant can have an application accorded special status for examination if the applicant expressly abandons another co-pending unexamined application.  The program was launched on November…

By Donald Zuhn — Last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced the official launch of its Twitter account.  The USPTO can now be followed at http://www.twitter.com/uspto.  The Office, which launched a Facebook page in August (see "USPTO Launches Facebook Page"), expects to provide brief, daily updates through its Twitter account.  Director Kappos noted…

By Donald Zuhn — Earlier this fall, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it was seeking comments regarding a proposal to incentivize the creation and distribution of humanitarian technologies by offering fast-track ex parte reexamination vouchers to patent holders "demonstrating humanitarian uses of patented technologies" (see "USPTO Looking for Ways to Incentivize Humanitarian…

By Donald Zuhn — On Tuesday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office released its Performance and Accountability Report for FY 2010.  With respect to the Office's performance goals, the report indicates that 64% of performance targets were met.  The report identifies three strategic goals, each comprising several objectives: 1.  Optimize patent quality and timeliness2.  Optimize…

    By Sherri Oslick — The U.S Patent and Trademark Office announced on Tuesday that it plans to expand the Peer to Patent pilot program to include applications in biotechnology, biopharmaceuticals, and bioinformatics, among other areas.  The Peer to Patent program previously was limited to software and business method applications. Initiated in 2007 as a joint…

By Donald Zuhn — Last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it was adopting new, more comprehensive procedures for measuring the quality of patent examination.  The new procedures were developed by a joint USPTO-Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC) Task Force following consultation with the patent community and public. Under the new system,…

By Donald Zuhn — Last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it was extending the Enhanced First Action Interview (FAI) pilot program for another six months.  As a result of the extension, the Office will now consider requests to participate in the pilot program that are filed on or before April 1,…