The ePCT system has a very helpful feature which permits you to see a preview of what will eventually be the first page of your published PCT application.  This feature was mentioned in an article in the Practical Advice section of a recent issue of the PCT Newsletter.  I am delighted to be able to tell you that the article mentions a mistake made by yours truly and the way I fixed the mistake. Continue reading →

If you try hard enough, can you think of some activity you could pursue for an eight-hour day that would be more fun than spending that day with, say, a hundred other people discussing the finer points of the Patent Cooperation Treaty?  Yeah, right, loyal readers, you know what I am talking about.  It would not be easy to top that! Continue reading →

A reminder of a webinar tomorrow — pros and cons of using any of four approaches to obtain US patent protection in connection with a PCT application:

• enter US national phase from the PCT
• file a bypass continuation from the PCT
• claim priority from a US non-provisional application
• file a US non-provisional application at the same time as the PCT application

For more information or to register, click here.

I’ll be teaching a webinar on Wednesday, April 4.  The topic is whether to use national phase or bypass continuation when pursuing US patent protection from a PCT application.  To learn more, or to register, click here.

As a reminder, there are many upcoming opportunities to learn about PCT:

• Dallas, Texas – April 9-10
• Minneapolis, Minnesota – April 11 (*)
• Austin, Texas – April 11-12
• New Orleans, Louisiana – April 18-20 (*)
• Boston, Massachusetts – June 6-7 (*)
• Alexandria, Virginia – July 11-12 (*)

I will be a presenter at the programs marked with the asterisk.

There’s a nice opportunity to learn about PCT coming up soon in Alexandria, Virginia.  I will be teaching two and a half days about PCT, on July 11-12, 2018.  This program is sponsored by Patent Resources Group.

To find out more, or to register, click here.

There’s a great opportunity to learn about PCT, coming soon in Boston, Massachusetts.

This is a two-day seminar hosted by PCT Learning Center, taking place on June 6 and 7, 2018.  I will be one of the speakers for this program.

For more information, or to register, click here.

It will be recalled (see my blog post of February 2, 2018) that the search fee for ISA/KR will increase by about 7% for filers in RO/US.  The increase will happen on April 1, 2018.

This offers an opportunity to save some money on PCT filing fees.  A US filer who is considering filing a PCT application (and who plans to pick ISA/KR) on or after April 1 might want to consider filing it on or before March 31.  This would permit the filer to pay the cheaper search fee.

The search fee paid by US filers for the Korean International Searching Authority (for the first invention) will increase on April 1, 2018 from $1134 to $1218, an increase of about seven percent.

The nice inexpensive fee at ISA/KR for the second through n-th inventions will, however, remain unchanged at a mere ₩225000 (about $208 at today’s exchange rate). Continue reading →