Bad signage at Chicago Union Station

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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.

What filing date you get when you e-file at RO/IB?

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What we are all accustomed to is that when we are picking a Receiving Office for the filing of a new PCT application, a substantial drawback of RO/IB is that we have to worry about the time zone.  For the US-based filer who is selecting between RO/US and RO/IB, the typical difference is six hours.  A filer in the Mountain Time Zone, for example, who is rushing to get a same-day filing date would need to e-file by 10PM if e-filing in RO/US but would typically need to e-file by 4PM if e-filing in RO/IB.

What I did not realize, until quite recently, is that things are quite different when one is e-filing a Hague application (in other words, an international design application rather than an international patent application). Continue reading →

Can some design people in Chile and Spain and India and Korea help?

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So by now there are six Depositing Offices in the DAS system for purposes of electronic certified copies of design applications. The six Depositing Offices are:

  • Chile (National Institute of Industrial Property)
  • China (Chinese National Intellectual Property Administration)
  • Spain (Spanish Patent and Trademark Office)
  • India (Indian Patent Office)
  • South Korea (Korean Intellectual Property Office)
  • US (United States Patent and Trademark Office)

I have successfully obtained Certificates of Availability for design applications in two of these six Offices, namely China and the US.  You can see exemplary Certificates here:

I would be grateful if a practitioner in Chile were to provide to me a DAS access code for a design priority document from Chile, and if a practitioner in Spain were to provide to me a DAS access code for a design priority document from Spain, and if a practitioner in India were to provide to me a DAS access code for a design priority document from India, and if a practitioner in Korea were to provide to me a DAS access code for a design priority document from Korea.  I suppose the way to do it would be to select a design document that is already a matter of public record, because it is already published or issued.  I would also need the application number and filing date.  I would then be able to obtain a Certificate of Availability and this would provide an opportunity to test out this aspect of the DAS system.

Thank you!

At the Design Patent Symposium 2018

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It is delightful to attend the Design Patent Symposium 2018, sponsored by Banner & Witcoff, Ltd., Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C., and George Washington University Law School. This symposium is taking place right now in the NEA building at 1201 16th Street NW, Washington, DC, having begun thus morning at 8:30 AM and continuing through the day to a reception ending at 6:00 PM.

It is a fascinating program (brochure here), with industrial designers, people from the USPTO, people from WIPO, and patent practitioners.  For those who were not able to attend, the presentation materials may be downloaded here.