Patent Law Weblog
Category: Patent Office Rules & Procedures
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By Donald Zuhn –- On Tuesday, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Andrei Iancu, in one of his last acts before stepping down from the post, sent a letter to Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC), Christopher Coons (D-DE), and Mazie Hirono (D-HI) of the Subcommittee on Intellectual Property for the Senate Judiciary Committee, responding to the…
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By Donald Zuhn –- After reflecting upon the events of the past twelve months, Patent Docs presents its 14th annual list of top patent stories. For 2020, we identified eight stories that were covered on Patent Docs last year that we believe had (or are likely to have) a significant impact on patent practitioners and…
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By Donald Zuhn –- After reflecting upon the events of the past twelve months, Patent Docs presents its 14th annual list of top patent stories. For 2020, we identified eight stories that were covered on Patent Docs last year that we believe had (or are likely to have) a significant impact on patent practitioners and…
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By Donald Zuhn — In an e-mail News Brief distributed last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office reported on the participation to date in its COVID-19 Prioritized Examination Pilot Program. The pilot program, which was implemented last May, allows applicants that qualify for small or micro entity status to request prioritized examination without paying…
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By Aaron Gin — Today, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office released a study entitled "Inventing AI", which highlights the increasing prevalence of artificial intelligence (AI)-based patent applications in the U.S. over the past few decades. The study, released by the Office of the Chief Economist of the USPTO, surveyed publicaly available granted U.S. patents…
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By Michael Borella — Last year, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a request for comments (RFC) on patenting artificial intelligence (AI) based inventions. Topics of the RFC included AI's impact on inventorship and ownership, patent eligibility, disclosure, prior art, and the level of ordinary skill in the art. The USPTO received 99…
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By Donald Zuhn — In a notice published in the Federal Register (85 Fed. Reg. 58038) earlier today, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it was implementing a deferred-fee provisional patent application pilot program in order to promote the expedited exchange of information about inventions designed to combat COVID–19. In the notice, the…
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By Donald Zuhn — USPTO Extends Cancer Immunotherapy Pilot Program In a notice published earlier this summer in the Federal Register (85 Fed. Reg. 41570), the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it was extending the Cancer Immunotherapy Pilot Program. According to the Office's notice, the Cancer Immunotherapy Pilot Program has been extended to…
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By Donald Zuhn — In a notice published in the Federal Register last month (85 Fed. Reg. 39888), the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it was initiating a Fast-Track Appeals Pilot Program, to provide for the advancement of applications out of turn in ex parte appeals before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. …
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By Donald Zuhn — Last month, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a final rule in the Federal Register (85 Fed. Reg. 36335), in which the Office set forth revisions to the rules of practice concerning Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) in view of the Federal Circuit's decision in Supernus Pharm., Inc. v. Iancu. The…
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