Category: Patent Office Rules & Procedures

    By Donald Zuhn — On August 21, 2007, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published new rules concerning continuation and claims practice that will undoubtedly have a profound effect on the way patent attorneys and agents prosecute applications before the Patent Office.  In view of the 128-page Federal Register notice regarding the new…

    By Kevin E. Noonan — A curious aspect of the recently-promulgated new prosecution rules (see links below) has been the relative silence of the major interest groups in opposition.  Perhaps lulled by pundits who declared the new rules "dead" as recently as six months before they were issued, or because the focus was…

    By Donald Zuhn — On August 28, 2007, we reported that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office would be adjusting patent fees to reflect fluctuations in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), and that the new fees would become effective on September 30, 2007.  Last Friday, the PTO published a notice in the Federal…

    By Kevin E. Noonan — As Patent Docs reported on Wednesday, Patent Commissioner John Doll (at right) was the luncheon speaker at the American Conference Institute’s Biotech Patents conference in Boston.  During the question-and-answer session, the Commissioner was asked about information one participant had received from a Patent Office official regarding divisional application…

    By Kevin E. Noonan — The American Conference Institute is holding its Biotech Patents conference this week in Boston, and the lunchtime speaker was John Doll, Commissioner for Patents.  Commissioner Doll (at right) is the happy face of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office:  smiling, self-deprecating, and charming while he espouses the Patent…

    By Christopher P. Singer — As previously reported on Patent Docs, the biotechnology and chemical pharmaceuticals technology groups at the U.S. Patent Office held their most recent quarterly customer partnership meeting on September 12, 2007.  While we were unable to attend the webcast on the day of the meeting, we will summarize a…

    By Donald Zuhn — On August 21, 2007, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published new rules concerning continuation and claims practice that will undoubtedly have a profound effect on the way patent attorneys and agents prosecute applications before the Patent Office.  In view of the 128-page Federal Register notice regarding the new…

    By Christopher P. Singer — In the Federal Register published Monday, September 10, 2007 (available here), the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published its Final rules regarding certain changes the Office made in order to conform with changes introduced in the April 1, 2007 Revisions to the Patent Cooperation Treaty Procedures.  As previously…

    By Kevin E. Noonan — Review of the new "examination support document" rule promulgated in 37 C.F.R. § 1.265 on August 21, 2007 strongly suggested that the purpose of the rule was not to facilitate submission of relevant prior art as an improvement over current Information Disclosure Statement provisions, but rather to provide…

    By Donald Zuhn — The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced today that it has begun a pilot project with the Swedish Patent and Registration Office (PRV) in an attempt to reduce the USPTO’s growing backlog of U.S. national applications waiting to be examined.  The pilot program will test the feasibility of having…