It’s that time of year again. The time of year when it is important to keep track of the fact that Daylight Saving Time is different in Switzerland from the way it is in the United States. This is important because you might be in the US, and you might be e-filing (or fax-filing) some document with the International Bureau of WIPO. Continue reading
Category Archives: Industrial Designs
Today is the day – Italy joins the DAS system
Yes, today is the day that Italy joins the DAS system as a Depositing Office. You can read about it here.
Who is the most trendy, modern and up-to-date Italian intellectual property firm? Be the first to provide to me an application number, filing date, and DAS access code for a design application, a patent application, a trademark application, a utility model application, and an RO/IT application, and I will recognize your status as the most trendy, modern and up-to-date in Italy. (I will blur part of the application number in the Certificates of Availability that I obtain and post.)
Today is the day for the Austrian Patent Office and DAS
Today is the day that the Austrian Patent Office commences participation in DAS. (I reported this to you in a blog post on July 21, 2020.) The APO is participating as an Accessing Office in every way that it is possible to participate:
- National industrial design applications
- National patent applications
- National trademark applications
- National utility model applications
The APO is participating as a Depositing Office in every way that it is possible to participate:
- National industrial design applications
- National patent applications
- National trademark applications
- National utility model applications
- PCT international applications filed with the office as a PCT receiving office
Who is the most trendy, modern and up-to-date Austrian intellectual property firm? Be the first to provide to me an application number, filing date, and DAS access code for a design application, a patent application, a trademark application, a utility model application, and an RO/AT application, and I will recognize your status as the most trendy, modern and up-to-date in Austria. (I will blur part of the application number in the Certificates of Availability that I obtain and post.)
How long it takes USPTO to issue a patent these days
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I am gobsmacked to see how consistently quickly USPTO is issuing patents these days. Design patents are taking less than five weeks. Utility patents are taking less than six weeks. Continue reading
Mexican Institute of Industrial Property joins DAS
Yet another intellectual property office has joined DAS. The Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) will become a Depositing Office and an Accessing Office in DAS on Tuesday, November 3, 2020.
Only just now did I notice that the logo for IMPI is a Möbius strip!
IMPI will be a Depositing Office for:
- patent applications
- utility model applications
- industrial design applications
In addition, RO/MX will be a Depositing Office for purposes of PCT applications filed in RO/MX.
This offers a reminder that Mexico is one of the seventy-six Offices that provides utility model protection.
IMPI will be an Accessing Office for:
- international design applications (Hague applications) filed at the IB
- industrial design applications
- patent applications
- utility model applications
Which intellectual property firm in Mexico is the most trendy, modern, and up-to-date? Send me a DAS access code for a Mexican patent application, a DAS access code for a Mexican utility model application, a DAS access code for a Mexican industrial design application, and a DAS access code for a PCT application filed in RO/MX. I can then post Certificates of Availability (with a few digits of the application numbers blurred) for those four applications, and I will then be able to recognize your firm as the most trendy, modern and up-to-date intellectual property firm in Mexico.
USPTO seems to have walked back the US-designation-Hague-DAS-certified-copy problem
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It is recalled (see blog post “Captain May I?” in Hague Agreement applications, August 20, 2020 and open letter to the Commissioner for Patents, September 2, 2020) that in about June of 2020 the USPTO came up with the notion that there was a trap for the unwary in the use of DAS as a way to perfect a priority claim in a US designation from a Hague Agreement design application. The USPTO decided that I had supposedly stepped into this trap twice, representing a design applicant in two 35-series design patent applications.
Now the USPTO seems to have walked it back. Although the USPTO did not communicate the walk-back as clearly as one might wish, the USPTO seems to have decided that this trap for the unwary never actually existed. It means I never stepped into the trap, given that it never actually existed. Continue reading
An open letter to the Commissioner for Patents
I request that the Commissioner for Patents publish an Official Gazette notice along the lines of the proposed notice appearing below. Continue reading
Today is the day — Colombia joins the WIPO DAS system
Yes, today is the day that Colombia joins DAS as both an Accessing Office and a Depositing Office. You can read about this here.
Who is the most trendy, modern and up-to-date Colombian intellectual property firm? Be the first to provide to me an application number, filing date, and DAS access code for a design application, a patent application, a utility model application, and an RO/CO application, and I will recognize your status as the most trendy, modern and up-to-date in Colombia. (I will blur part of the application number in the Certificates of Availability that I obtain and post.)
“Captain May I?” in Hague Agreement applications
The childhood game of “Captain May I?” (Wikipedia article) irritated me greatly as a child. I had little patience for it. The premise of the game is that words do not mean what they seem to mean. In this game, a string of words which on its face is an instruction to take three steps forward does not actually count as an instruction to take three steps forward unless it is followed up by the query “Captain May I?” which is in turn followed by an automatic grant of permission by the “captain”. The conceit of the game is that any and all requests to the captain for such permission are automatically granted, so that after a few minutes of play one sort of assumes that because the requests are always granted, there should not really be a need to ask. But the “gotcha” in the game is that you must ask, even though the asking is pointless.
Today I was gobsmacked to learn that the USPTO plays “Captain May I?” with US designations of Hague Agreement applications (international design applications). If as a child you were to get tricked and forget to ask “Captain May I?” the consequences would merely be that you return to the starting line of the game. But as a design applicant if you get tricked and forget to ask “USPTO May I?” the consequence is, it seems, that you lose your priority claim. I am not making this up. Continue reading
Two more Offices join the WIPO DAS system
I am delighted to report that two more Offices have announced their participation in the DAS system. These are the Italian Patent and Trademark Office and the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce of Colombia (the Colombian patent and trademark office). Here are details of the Depositing-Office participations:
| Colombia is a Depositing Office? | Italy is a Depositing Office? | |
| National industrial design applications | yes since August 28, 2020 | yes since October 1, 2020 |
| National patent applications | yes since August 28, 2020 | yes since October 1, 2020 |
| National trademark applications | yes since October 1, 2020 | |
| National utility model applications | yes since August 28, 2020 | yes since October 1, 2020 |
| PCT international applications filed With the office as a PCT receiving office |
yes since August 28, 2020 | yes since October 1, 2020 |
One striking aspect of this is the participation of RO/CO and RO/IT as Depositing Offices. This reminds us that among the IP5, the straggler Receiving Offices are RO/JP, RO/KR, and RO/US.
Note, too, the ever-increasing participation of Offices in DAS with respect to trademarks.
This also offers a reminder that these two Offices offer utility model protection.
Here are details of Colombia’s Accessing-Office participation:
| Colombia is an Accessing Office? | |
| Hague international applications | yes since August 28, 2020 |
| National industrial design applications | yes since August 28, 2020 |
| National patent applications | yes since August 28, 2020 |
| National trademark applications | yes since August 28, 2020 |
Who is the most trendy, modern and up-to-date Colombian intellectual property firm? Be the first to provide to me an application number, filing date, and DAS access code for a design application, a patent application, a utility model application, and an RO/CO application, and I will recognize your status as the most trendy, modern and up-to-date in Colombia. (I will blur part of the application number in the Certificates of Availability that I obtain and post.)
Who is the most trendy, modern and up-to-date Italian intellectual property firm? Be the first to provide to me an application number, filing date, and DAS access code for a design application, a patent application, a trademark application, a utility model application, and an RO/IT application, and I will recognize your status as the most trendy, modern and up-to-date in Italy. (I will blur part of the application number in the Certificates of Availability that I obtain and post.)