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 Mark Chael — For the benefit of our readers, we would like to remind you that the Office of PCT Legal Administration at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office maintains a mailing list "to notify PCT customers, via e-mail, of updates to the forms and other information on [its] pages." In order to…
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By Sydney Kokjohn — Fish & Richardson and its pharmaceutical client Japan Tobacco Inc. recently discovered another error in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's method of calculating patent term adjustment ("PTA"). On January 8, 2009, Fish & Richardson filed an Application for Patent Term Adjustment under 37 C.F.R. § 1.705(d) (see Application). In…
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By Donald Zuhn — Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony from David Kappos (at right), the Obama Administration's nominee for Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. While the hearing was mostly uneventful, Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) provided an interesting line of questioning when…
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By Donald Zuhn — On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on several nominations, including that of David Kappos for Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The Committee, which is scheduled to begin the hearing at 10:00 am (EST), will also…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — Hal Wegner has shared with Patent Docs papers filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday, asking the Federal Circuit to defer proceedings on its en banc review of the panel decision in Tafas v. Doll. The basis for this request is to give Under Secretary-designate David Kappos…
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By Christopher P. Singer — The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a press release on July 21, announcing the start of the e-Office Action program following a successful pilot version of the program. The e-Office Action program allows participating patent applicants to receive e-mail notifications of office communications, rather than receiving the usual…
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By Christopher P. Singer — After much speculation and rumor regarding the practitioner maintenance fee (see "Annual Fee for Registered Practitioners May Be Delayed"), the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office posted an announcement clarifying that, "[t]he Final Rules adopted in November 2008 do not specify the date by which the annual fee, if collected,…
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By Christopher P. Singer — As previously reported on Patent Docs, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) had planned to institute an annual fee for all registered practitioners (73 Fed. Reg. 67750). The fee was intended to be required for practitioners to maintain active status to practice before the Office, and was thought…
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By Christopher P. Singer — On June 30, 2009, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office sent out an e-Commerce e-Alert announcing that the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is now participating in the Priority Document Exchange (PDX) program. WIPO is the fourth foreign patent office (including Korea, Japan, and Europe) to join the PDX…
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By Donald Zuhn — The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced today that Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke (at right) has appointed Nicholas Godici "to look at ways to strengthen the management structure of the USPTO and provide an up-to-date assessment of the challenges the office faces." The USPTO release notes that Mr. Godici…
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