Monthly Archives: November 2017

Time to first Office Action in PPH?

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A blog reader posted this comment recently:

I’m less interested in how long it takes to get PPH decisions, and more interested in how long it takes to get a first Office Action when using PPH. It doesn’t help my client to be able to say that an application is on the PPH track. It helps my client to have an issued patent. Do you know of any data regarding this? I don’t see anything useful at https://www.uspto.gov/corda/dashboards/patents/main.dashxml

This reader is correct that the USPTO dashboard is silent on this particular delay, namely how long it takes, after the grant of a PPH petition, to receive a first Office Action.

We’ve tracked such pendency over many hundreds of PPH cases on our docket.  I’ll try to answer the reader’s question and offer some practice tips.

Continue reading →

ePCT webinar Tuesday

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This coming Tuesday is the third of a four-part series of webinars about ePCT.

Part 3.  Follow-on filings.

  • Best Practice for doing a 92bis change as an Action.
  • Best Practice for doing an Article 19 Amendment as an Action.
  • Best Practice for filing a Demand.

For more information or to register, click here.

Posted in PCT |

A chance to save a little money on PCT search fees

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Readers will recall (perhaps from my blog post of October 13) that the search fee for ISA/EP will increase (for US filers) on December 1, 2017.   This offers an opportunity to save a little money.  If your client is planning to file a PCT application in the next week or two, and is planning to pick ISA/EP, consider filing it on November 30 rather than December 1.  This will save $139 in search fees.

Posted in PCT |

Keeping track of time zones

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click to enlarge

A long time ago we had a special clock with four time zones.  We correspond a lot with clients in China.  And we often need to keep track of when it will be midnight at the USPTO or at WIPO.  The four-zone clock helped us keep track of these things.

But the special clock was noisy.  It clicked as the second hand advanced, and somehow the clicks really carried through the office.  Not only that, but all four of the clock faces clicked and the clicks were never quite simultaneous across the four faces.  So there were 240 clicks per minute.  We eventually scrapped that clock.

Now we have a new four-zone clock as you can see in the photograph.  The clocks are silent.  And the clocks synchronize their time with WWV.

Two of the clocks (the two in the middle) automatically update themselves for Daylight Saving Time.  The one on the right will require manual adjustment four times per year (see blog article).

Design filing receipts from USPTO in a mere two days!

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click to enlarge

We filed a bunch of new design patent applications in the USPTO this past Tuesday the 14th.

I am astonished (in a good way) to see that USPTO has mailed Filing Receipts for two of the design applications today, the 16th.

In a quarter of a century of interaction with the USPTO as a registered practitioner, I have never seen a filing receipt arrive in a mere two days.  Until today, and today it happened in two cases.

(That’s the good news.  The bad news is that in each of these cases the FOAP is 44 months.  More than three and a half years, it seems, that we will have to wait for the cases to be examined.)

Have others been receiving Filing Receipts this quick?  I wonder if we are just lucky somehow, or if this is a (welcome) recent trend at the USPTO.  Please post a comment below.

Webinars to learn about ePCT

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Those who handle pending US patent applications are well aware that it is impossible to carry out one’s work competently without knowing how to use Private PAIR to view pending US patent applications and to check the status of such applications. Likewise one needs to know how to use EFS-Web to file new patent applications and to file follow-on papers.

ePCT is the mechanism for viewing pending PCT applications and for checking the status of such applications. ePCT is an important part of the filing of new PCT patent applications and is a crucial part of the filing of follow-on papers in PCT applications.

It is thus extremely important to learn how to use ePCT.  ePCT is extraordinarily feature rich. Here are four webinars which together will explore the 20% or so of the ePCT features which you will use 80% of the time. Continue reading →

Posted in PCT |