Month: March 2014

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Should you use USPTO’s new Glossary Pilot Program?

USPTO has announced a Glossary Pilot Program to Promote Patent Claim Clarity.  The program promises to push your patent application to the front of the line (make it “special”) if you provide a glossary in the detailed description portion of the specification, providing a definition of each important term used in the application.  This Glossary Program is a fascinating concept and it provides yet another reminder that there are smart people inside of the USPTO who are willing to try all kinds of approaches in the hope that some of the approaches will turn out to help with our shared goals such as promoting science and the useful arts.  Should you recommend this Glossary Program to your clients?

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USPTO tightens up fee payment options for patent appeals effective May 1, 2014

I never knew this, but it seems that it used to be a patent appellant could pay patent appeal fees by means of a general authorization to charge a Deposit Account.

Starting May 1, 2014, this will no longer be possible.  The appellant that tries to rely upon a general authorization will fail and risks having the appeal dismissed.

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USPTO relaxes formal requirements for Track I (and does it retroactively)

Track I (also called “prioritized examination”, and not to be confused with Accelerated Examination) has been available since September of 2011, and permits a patent applicant to move to the front of the examination queue upon payment of an extra $4000 (smaller for small and micro entities).  USPTO has relaxed the formal requirements for Track I as of March 5, 2014.

Importantly, the rule change is retroactive.  If a filer screwed up a Track I request in the past and had it dismissed, the filer may be able to get the request granted now by filing a petition.

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USPTO relaxes rules for CPAs in design patent applications

The AIA rules published August 14, 2012 gave a patent applicant a free pass on handing in the signed inventor declaration late, indeed extremely late.  The 2012 rules permitted the applicant to postpone handing in the declaration until as late as the time of allowance.

But not for CPAs (continued prosecution applications) from design patent applications.  Due to an oversight in the 2012 AIA rulemaking, this free pass was not extended to CPAs in that rulemaking.  On March 5, 2014 the USPTO published a rule change correcting the oversight and extending the free pass to CPAs.

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Best Practice: using USPTO’s Financial Profile system

USPTO has many e-commerce systems that are well known to practitioners and applicants — EFS-Web for e-filing patent documents, TEAS for e-filing trademark documents, ESTTA for e-filing TTAB documents to name three examples.  But I find it remarkable how few practitioners and applicants know anything about USPTO’s Financial Profile system.  The Financial Profile system is (or should be) a central part of the bookkeeping workflow for any patent firm or trademark firm and for any corporate patent department or corporate trademark department.

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