Another reason why I am glad we use VOIP.MS telephone service

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At our firm we use VOIP.MS for our outbound telephone service and for most of our inbound telephone service.  VOIP.MS is one of the several companies these days that makes it easy to dump the traditional landline telephone services and make use of voice over IP.  As I have discussed in previous blog articles, it is astonishing how much money one can save and it is astonishing what powerful features can be implemented in one’s telephone system, using voice over IP.  There are a bunch of reasons why we felt good about having selected VOIP.MS for most of our voice over IP services.

But today’s blog article talks about a new and different reason why we feel good about having selected VOIP.MS.  They noticed that someone in the Gaza strip had snuck into our PBX and had placed several telephone calls to mobile phones in Albania.  They proactively shut off the international calling on the trunk that had been passing these calls, and they dropped an email to us letting us know.  This was at 9AM on a Sunday.   Continue reading →

The smart consumer will consider using GoodRX.com

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A few months ago I needed to get a prescription filled, and my doctor said “you might want to consider using GoodRX.com“.  My doctor suggested that when I got to the pharmacy, I should pull out my smart phone, open a web browser, visit the web site GoodRX.com, type in the name of the drug, and show the screen to the pharmacist.

I followed the doctor’s suggestion and I was astonished at what happened next.  The list price for the drug (thank goodness I only needed it once, for a problem that thankfully was not very serious and thankfully went away promptly!) was slightly over $100.  With my health insurance it was around $70.  Using the information on the screen of my smart phone, the price dropped to $20.  I paid the $20, took the drug, the problem went away, and I realized I had better blog about GoodRX.

So what’s the deal?  Is it a scam?  Does it always work?  Is it somehow illegal?  Is there some catch?  When a person gets this price reduction, are they somehow paying for this by revealing private information to Facebook or something? Continue reading →

Today is the day – USPTO pulls the plug on PDX with respect to Korean patent office

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As I blogged here, today is the day that USPTO has pulled the plug on PDX in connection with KIPO (the Korean patent office).

For US design filers whose cases claim priority from Korean cases, this is welcome news.  Simply use Form PTO/SB/38 to ask USPTO to retrieve your electronic certified copy from the KIPO.  Be sure to include the DAS access code provided to you by Korean counsel.

For any US case claiming priority from a Korean utility or design application, the Best Practice nowadays is to set up an “alert” in DAS for the application, and to obtain a Certificate of Availability in DAS for that application, all the while checking that US is listed among the Offices to which the application is available.

Can you pass the DAS quiz?

Now what remains is for USPTO to do the same (pulling the plug) for the PDX relationship with EPO.

Starting now, when you as US counsel send instructions to Korean counsel to file utility or design cases claiming priority from your US cases, be sure to pass along the DAS access code (which is the PAIR confirmation code).  Also set up an “alert” in DAS for the US priority application, and also send a Certificate of Availability to Korean counsel.

Starting now, when Korean counsel sends instructions to you to file utility or design cases in the US that are claiming priority from Korean cases, Korean counsel should pass along the DAS access code.  Korean counsel should also send a Certificate of Availability to you.

Backlog at DO/EO/US

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These days if you enter the US national phase you can expect to wait at least three months for your Filing Receipt.

We try to track this kind of thing pretty closely in our active files.  For a domestic filing receipt the delays these days are a mere 2-3 weeks.  But if the filing receipt that you are waiting for is a DO/EO/US filing receipt, you will have to wait three months.

This three months is, these days, the “best case”.  This assumes that you e-filed the case (not paper) and that you did not have any missing parts (no missing inventor declaration, no missing translation into English, no missing fees).  This assumes that you provided not only an ADS but also a computer-readable ADS but not only that, you provided it in the first EFS-Web submission meaning that the bibliographic data auto-loaded into Palm.  You also provided an Express Request for immediate national-phase entry if the other requirements were satisfied before the end of the 30 months.  Put plainly, you did everything that you possibly could to make as easy as possible the work of the DO/EO/US person.

With all of this, the waiting time for a Filing Receipt these is three months.

If, however, you do anything that requires the DO/EO/US person to do actual work, like not having paid all of the fees, not having provided the inventor declaration, etc. then the waiting time for the Filing Receipt will be much longer.

How long are you having to wait for your US national phase Filing Receipts?  Post a comment below.

 

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Date is set for USPTO to pull the plug on PDX for Korean patent office

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I am delighted to learn that a date has been set for the USPTO to pull the plug on PDX for the connection between the USPTO and the Korean Intellectual Property Office.

As I blogged here, the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) recently became a Depositing Office in DAS for purposes of design applications.  This was of course welcome news but it did not help US filers, because:

  • until now USPTO and KIPO have had an available connection through PDX, and
  • PDX does not support designs, although DAS does, and
  • PDX trumps DAS, meaning that between any two Offices, if there is a DAS connection, it will not get used so long as there is a PDX connection.

USPTO has announced that the plug will get pulled on PDX on December 1, 2018.

For US design filers whose cases claim priority from Korean cases, this is welcome news.  Simply use Form PTO/SB/38 to ask USPTO to retrieve your electronic certified copy from the KIPO.  Be sure to include the DAS access code provided to you by Korean counsel.

For any US case claiming priority from a Korean utility or design application, the Best Practice nowadays is to set up an “alert” in DAS for the application, and to obtain a Certificate of Availability in DAS for that application, all the while checking that US is listed among the Offices to which the application is available.

Can you pass the DAS quiz?

Now what remains is for USPTO to do the same (pulling the plug) for the PDX relationship with EPO.

Starting now, when you as US counsel send instructions to Korean counsel to file utility or design cases claiming priority from your US cases, be sure to pass along the DAS access code (which is the PAIR confirmation code).  Also set up an “alert” in DAS for the US priority application, and also send a Certificate of Availability to Korean counsel.

Starting now, when Korean counsel sends instructions to you to file utility or design cases in the US that are claiming priority from Korean cases, Korean counsel should pass along the DAS access code.  Korean counsel should also send a Certificate of Availability to you.

 

Bad signage at Chicago Union Station

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click image to enlarge

I recently had reason to connect from one Amtrak train to another at Chicago’s Union Station.  The type of ticket that I was traveling on gave me access to Amtrak’s Metropolitan Lounge in that train station.  My layover was about five hours so I was really looking forward to finding this lounge and taking it easy for a while.  I disembarked from the first train (the California Zephyr from Denver) and found a helpful map (at right).  And promptly got misdirected. Continue reading →

US filers and filing at WIPO and daylight saving time

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Keep in mind that most locations in the US will turn off daylight saving time today, but today is not the day that Switzerland will turn off daylight saving time.  (Switzerland turned off DST a week ago.)

Those who are filing documents at the International Bureau — documents that need a same-day filing date — should check to make sure they know what time it is in Switzerland as of today.

The main point here is that for a US filer, everything is now “back to normal”.  Whatever time zone offset a US filer is accustomed to between his or her time zone and Geneva, that offset is back to normal.

ePCT will tell you what time it is in Switzerland.

EPO now belongs to the DAS system

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Today is the day!  EPO now belongs to the DAS system.

As I blogged back on October 22, EPO had announced that November 1, 2018 was the day that it was going to join the WIPO DAS system.  And today is the day.

This is welcome news.  As of today, all members of the IP5 belong to DAS.

US patent applicants will not, however, be able to make use use of this system for their applications that claim priority from EP applications, because the USPTO and EPO are still connected by the legacy PDX system.  Eventually it is expected that USPTO will pull the plug on the PDX system with respect to EPO, and then US filers will be able to get the benefits of DAS for their applications that claim priority from EP applications.

There are many benefits to the use of DAS.  One benefit is that the filer can set up an “alert” which will let the filer know exactly when a particular Accessing Office has actually retrieved a particular electronic certified copy.  (PDX offers no such alerting function.)  Another benefit is that the filer can obtain a Certificate of Availability which removes any doubt as to whether a particular application is or is not available to any particular Accessing Office.

Are you fully familiar with the DAS system?  See if you can pass this simple quiz on the DAS system.

 

Daylight saving time and WIPO

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Keep in mind that Switzerland will turn off daylight saving time today.  Those who are filing documents at the International Bureau — documents that need a same-day filing date — should check to make sure they know what time it is in Switzerland as of today.

For US filers, keep in mind that the US will not turn off DST today.  The US will turn off DST a week from now.

US filers who are getting ready to file a document at the IB should thus pay close attention during this next week to what time it is in Switzerland.

The practical effect for most US filers is that for the next week, you get an extra hour to e-file.  For example if you are in the Mountain Time Zone, normally you rush to file by 4PM if need a same-day filing date at the IB.  But for the next week you can file as late as 5PM and you will still get a same-day filing date at the IB.

Those who are e-filing in ePCT can readily check any time to see what time it is in Geneva, because at the top of any ePCT user screen it says what time it is in Geneva.  Here is a screen shot.  For example right now it is 4:44 AM Mountain Time and as you can see it is 11:44 AM in Geneva.