Month: October 2018

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Another fax bites the dust

More and more fax machines and fax numbers are biting the dust.  Here are the most recent announcements (see October 2018 PCT Newsletter):

  • The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand has just announced that it has discontinued use of its fax machine.
  • The Industrial Property Office of Slovakia has announced that with effect from January 14, 2019, it will discontinue the use of its fax machine.

These follow previous announcements from some months ago, for example:

  • On April 1, 2018, WIPO disconnected its fax machine for Madrid-related communications.
  • Oppedahl Patent Law Firm LLC stopped posting a fax number on July 21, 2018.
  • Some months ago WIPO announced that it is considering discontinuing its fax machines for PCT-related communications from the end of 2018.
  • Some month ago WIPO proposed to discontinue the use of facsimile communications for Hague Agreement communications from January 1, 2019.
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USPTO joins DAS as a Depositing Office for designs

There is welcome news that on October 1, 2018, USPTO joined DAS as a Depositing Office for purposes of designs.

This is welcome progress with respect to the ID5 (the five highest volume industrial design Offices).  When people say “ID5”, they mean:

  • CNIPA (the Chinese intellectual property office, formerly known as SIPO)
  • EUIPO (formerly known as OHIM)
  • JPO (the Japanese patent office)
  • KIPO (the Korean intellectual property office)
  • USPTO

At this point, so far as the members of the ID5 are concerned, the progress is as follows:

  • CNIPA is a Depositing Office and Accessing Office for patents and utility models and designs
  • EUIPO unfortunately does not yet belong to DAS.  It is hoped that EUIPO will join DAS Real Soon Now.
  • JPO is a Depositing Office with respect to patents and utility models.  JPO is an Accessing Office with respect to patents, utility models, and designs.
  • KIPO is a Depositing Office with respect to patents and utility models and designs (but see note below).
  • USPTO is a Depositing Office and Accessing Office for patents and designs (but see note below).

The note is that USPTO and KIPO have a legacy relationship in the PDX system.  And unfortunately the design of PDX is that it trumps DAS.  If two Offices have a PDX relationship, this blocks any DAS relationship.  So what needs to happen now is that USPTO needs to pull the plug on its PDX relationship with KIPO.  I blogged about this here.

And of course JPO needs to become a Depositing Office for designs.

And EUIPO needs to become a member of DAS.

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A guest post from an alert reader

[Note from Carl Oppedahl:  I received this text from a reader who suggested that I post it as a guest blog article.  It is posted anonymously, for reasons that will become clear.  Maybe you find it as interesting to read as I did!]

This is a long e-mail, but I hope that you will read it.  I want to thank you for the blog that you posted last Saturday, because it saved me from a major malpractice exposure.  Continue reading “A guest post from an alert reader”

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Are you a user of Madrid Protocol? Will you be in Washington on October 27?

Are you a user of the Madrid Protocol? Will you be in Washington, DC on Saturday, October 27?

If so, then please consider helping the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) — and yourself — by attending a focus group of US users of the Madrid system at 7AM on that day at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park hotel in Washington, DC.  Although WIPO’s focus group will be held in conjunction with the AIPLA Annual Meeting, you do not need to be registered for the Annual Meeting to participate in the focus group.
Continue reading “Are you a user of Madrid Protocol? Will you be in Washington on October 27?”

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ISA/AU search fee dropped today

IP AustraliaThe fee to be paid by a US PCT filer for a search carried out by IP Australia dropped today, from $1722 to $1631.

I mentioned this in a previous blog post.

You will not need to worry about accidentally paying an incorrect fee amount, because the e-filing systems have already been updated to reflect the new fee amount.  For filers in RO/US, the EFS-Web system has already been updated.  And for filers in RO/IB, the ePCT system has already been updated.