There will be a live in-person PCT seminar in Alexandria, Virginia on Monday, October 28, 2024. This seminar, mentioned in the recent WIPO PCT Newsletter, will be an all-day event. WIPO will soon provide a registration link for the seminar. For now, save the date in your calendar. Be sure to subscribe to this blog, and be sure to subscribe to the PCT listserv, to hear about it when the registration link becomes available.
Sluggishness of USPTO workflow for inbound faxes
In a previous blog article I bemoaned the unacceptable flakiness in the function of the USPTO’s Central Fax Number. In this blog article I bemoan the unacceptable sluggishness of the USPTO’s workflow for handling of inbound faxes. Continue reading “Sluggishness of USPTO workflow for inbound faxes”
Flakiness of USPTO’s central fax number
USPTO’s central fax number is flaky and the subsequent USPTO workflow is unacceptably sluggish. Continue reading “Flakiness of USPTO’s central fax number”
After a ten-year run, AFCP comes to a close
There has always been a problem that some Examiners fish for unnecessary continuations and RCEs. If an applicant can be teased into filing a continuation or an RCE, the Examiner picks up two more “counts”.
One of the USPTO’s initiatives to try to reduce this problem happened in 2013 — the After Final Consideration Program (AFCP). Now after a ten-year run, the USPTO has announced (Federal Register notice) that it will discontinue AFCP.
During the ten years that AFCP was available, our firm used it many dozens of times. I estimate that in perhaps 25% of cases, it did save us from having to file an otherwise unnecessary continuation or RCE. Now with the AFCP initiative gone, we will surely face renewed levels of fishing for continuations and RCEs by some Examiners.
Does your bank participate in FedNow?
FedNow (Wikipedia article) is an instant payment service developed by the Federal Reserve for depository institutions in the United States, which allows individuals and businesses to send and receive money. FedNow is intended to be faster and less expensive than other traditional ways that banks in the US send money to each other. FedNow is instant, which is better than the delays of hours or even days for ACH and bank wire transactions. Bank customers, including businesses and individuals, can benefit greatly from FedNow. Does your financial institution participate in FedNow? Continue reading “Does your bank participate in FedNow?”
I unplug a VOIP phone, and later I receive an email telling me it got unplugged
Yes, just an hour ago I unplugged a VOIP phone, and 45 minutes later I received an email telling me that it had gotten unplugged. It means that my spiffy new SIP trunk monitor is working.
It will be recalled (see blog article dated June 25, 2023) that I fished for people to join me in an open-source project. The idea was to set up some PHP script that would run periodically, interrogating an API at the VOIP.MS company, querying the registration status of a long list of SIP trunks (what the company calls “subaccounts”). Now I have this working, in a sort of simple way.
This kind of monitoring actually monitors quite a few things. Suppose the VOIP device being monitored is a desktop phone. Then this monitor will tip me off if any of these things happen:
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- Somebody unplugging the phone itself.
- Failure in the power-over-ethernet delivery of power to the phone.
- Loss of Internet connectivity at the place where the phone is located.
You can read about it here.
Advanced seminar on the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)
Join the nice people of WIPO for the eagerly awaited annual advanced seminar on the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) of October 2 and 3, 2024, brought to you by the PCT Legal and User Relations Division. Continue reading “Advanced seminar on the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)”
Looking to get somebody to write some PHP code for me
Hello readers. I wonder if somebody knows a PHP coder who would like to get hired to write some PHP code for me? Here is a description of the code that I hope to pay somebody to write.
Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity CLE for patent and trademark attorneys
Colorado Rule 250.2(1)(a)(i) says that beginning January 1, 2023, every registered attorney must achieve at least two credit hours per reporting period in the area of equity, diversity, and inclusivity.
The Colorado office in charge of CLE lists three areas that are supposed to be covered in CLE courses about equity, diversity, and inclusivity, namely:
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- equal access to the legal system;
- competent representation of diverse populations;
- the recognition, mitigation, or elimination of bias in the legal profession or the legal system.
What may a patent attorney or trademark attorney do to respond in a meaningful way to licensure requirements regarding equity, diversity, and inclusivity? In this webinar, join your presenter, Carl Oppedahl, in trying to figure out what the problems are, in such areas as patent and trademark prosecution, for which an EDI CLE requirement might be a solution.
When and where? Thursday, September 5, 2024, Noon to 1:40 PM Mountain Time (100 minutes)
Format: Live webinar
For more information, or to register, click here.
Trademark Office can’t handle its own characters
Seems to me that the Trademark Office people at the USPTO ought to have put software safeguards in place so that the Trademark Office could handle its own characters. The Trademark Office has not put such safeguards into place. Continue reading “Trademark Office can’t handle its own characters”