Category: Patent Office Rules & Procedures

        By Christopher P. Singer — In a rule change that is sure please patent practitioners living in Hawaii, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced several amendments to Title 37 of the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) relating to EFS-Web correspondence.  In particular, the following sections of 37 C.F.R. have been…

        By Donald Zuhn — Further to yesterday's report, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced today that applicants can now request electronic transfer and retrieval of priority documents to and from the European Patent Office (EPO).  The USPTO also announced that later this year, applicants will be able to request…

        By Donald Zuhn — As reported here earlier, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has now promulgated a final rule providing for the electronic transfer of certified copies of priority documents from other intellectual property offices and permitting other intellectual property offices to electronically retrieve certified copies of U.S. patent applications…

     By Donald Zuhn — The USPTO announced that the Patent Office will be closed on Tuesday in view of President Bush's proclamation that there be a National Day of Mourning for President Gerald R. Ford on January 2, 2007.  Because the Patent Office will consider Tuesday to be a "Federal holiday" under 35…

    By Donald Zuhn — In a press release posted last Friday, the Patent Office announced that 2006 has been a record-breaking year for the USPTO.  In particular, the Patent Office noted that it received a record number of patent applications (440,000) and hired a record number of patent examiners (1,218) in 2006.  The…

    By Christopher P. Singer — The USPTO presented a seminar today, December 20, 2006, that provided an overview of the new features now available on Private PAIR and announced the new Priority Document Exchange program (PDX).  The presentation has been recorded and will be available within 48 hours at http://webex.client.ninesystems.com/pair122006. Private PAIR 7.0…

    By Christopher P. Singer — The USPTO has asked Patent Docs to remind its readers that the Patent Office announcement regarding Private PAIR 7.0 and the EDX program, originally scheduled for December 19th, has been rescheduled for today (December 20th) at 1:00 pm Eastern time.  The event can be accessed here.

    By Christopher P. Singer — The U.S. Patent Office today announced that a limited group of Private PAIR users have been given the option of receiving electronic correspondence from the USPTO instead of paper mailings.  The December 19, 2006 notice discusses an overview of the program and says that depending on its success,…

    By Christopher P. Singer — Unfortunately, because of technical difficulties the U.S. Patent Office was unable to broadcast its presentation originally scheduled for 1:00 pm EST today, regarding the update to Private PAIR (Private PAIR 7.0).  They hope to reschedule the event for sometime tomorrow. Earlier today, the PTO announced that this presentation…

    By Christopher P. Singer — The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will be releasing an updated version of private PAIR (Patent Application Information Retrieval), which allows registered practitioners access to information regarding their patent applications electronically. To announce the launch, the USPTO will be holding a webinar on Tuesday, December 19, 2006 at…