On November 19 I blogged about the “Ghost Art Unit” at the USPTO. This was art unit 2910, headed by SPEs Cathron Brooks and Joel Sincavage. This was a curious art unit with no Examiners. Our firm had some fifteen design patent applications stalled in this art unit. The cases had no First Office Action Prediction, which was no surprise given that the art unit had no Examiners. A comment by a USPTO person gave me the impression that a couple of thousand design patent applications, all GUI (graphical user interface) applications, were assigned to this art unit.
Our oldest case stalled in this ghost art unit was a case filed September 23, 2013. Other cases of ours in this art unit had been filed as long ago as January and February of 2014.
Well, yesterday was a big day for our cases that were stalled in the ghost art unit. USPTO has transferred every one of these cases to the newly created art unit 2919, headed by Eric Goodman. SPE Goodman has fifteen Examiners working for him in this art unit.
I’d guess that this means that as of December 22, 2014, every case that had been stalled in the ghost art unit 2910 is now in the hands of a real art unit. Most if not all of the previously stalled cases are GUI cases, and most if not all of them are in SPE Goodman’s art unit.
How about your design patent applications that were assigned to art unit 2910? Are they now out of that art unit? Please post a comment to share your experience.