CRISPR is an extremely important technology and several companies are competing to see who will make money from CRISPR. A chief part of that competition is a fight to see who will control the most patents relating to CRISPR. Article 4 of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property says that for a patent priority claim to be valid, the second patent application needs to have been filed by the same applicant as the applicant in the first patent application, or by the successor in title. We call this SAOSIT (same applicant or successor in title). On January 16, 2020 the Board of Appeal at the European Patent Office made an important decision that relates to CRISPR and SAOSIT. The decision essentially was that one of the CRISPR patents was invalid, and (oversimplifying slightly) it was invalid because patent counsel did not handle SAOSIT correctly.
The decision offers a reminder of ways that patent attorney needs to be very careful when carrying out the filing of a PCT application or regional patent application or national patent application that makes a priority claim under Article 4 of the Paris Convention. The decision also offers a reminder of the ways that a patent attorney needs to be very careful when filing a US provisional patent application.
In this webinar, we will work our way through just what went wrong in the various patent filings that led to the findings of invalidity of the CRISPR patent. We will spell out the traps for the unwary in the filing of a PCT application or other “second patent application” where a priority claim is being made. We will detail the best practices for the filing of a US provisional patent application, best practices which, had they been followed, would likely have kept the CRISPR patent loss from happening. We will discuss the relevant PCT Declarations and we will learn that even if you do use the PCT Declarations, this alone will almost certainly not avert SAOSIT problems.
When and where?
Monday, October 25, 2021
3:00 PM to 4:30 PM Mountain Time
Format: Live webinar
Cost? $49. This registration fee covers one login link. The link is usable on one computer or one projection screen or one tablet or one smart phone. If two or three or more people watch the webinar on that computer or screen or tablet or smart phone, and if each of them learns the material, and if each of them fills in whatever forms they need to fill in to get CLE credit in their state, then each of them has the prospect of earning CLE credit in their state.
The faculty. Your professor is Carl Oppedahl, the author of the Ant-Like Persistence blog. Carl is a partner in Oppedahl Patent Law Firm LLC. He has served as an adjunct professor at University of Denver law school, teaching Patent Prosecution. Carl has been a Fellow of the American Intellectual Property Law Association. He has spent more than twenty-five years serving intellectual property clients.
Here’s what some attendees had to say about a recent webinar taught by Professor Oppedahl:
“Great. Concise, to the point and practical.” — M.Z., Suffern, NY
“Attorney Oppedahl does an excellent job of explaining procedures before various patent authorities and does so in an effective webinar format.” — R.K., Manchester, NH
“This webinar was extremely helpful, very current, and professionally presented. Carl is an excellent presenter, answers as many questions as possible, and speaks with perfect pacing.” — S.B., Boston, MA
“Oppedahl Webinars are the best for patent practitioners!” — P.M., Portland, ME
“Very interesting, well presented and topical.” — S.M., Ottawa, Canada
CLE accreditation? CLE accreditation is being requested in Colorado.
CLE assistance? Please note that to keep our prices as low as possible, the registration fee does not include assistance from our office in attempting to obtain CLE credit from your state CLE agency. We will provide a Uniform Certificate of Attendance and related material, and it is up to you to attempt to obtain the CLE credit from your state CLE agency. If you wish assistance from our office in attempting to obtain CLE credit from your state CLE agency, please understand that (a) there will be an extra charge for such assistance; (b) our assistance will be limited to answering questions and filling out forms for you, but it will be up to you to communicate with your state CLE agency directly, and (c) we cannot make any assurances of successful CLE credit in any state in which we have not promised to provide CLE accreditation.
More than one location? This registration is per login computer or smart phone or tablet location. If your firm or corporation wishes to make it possible for people to attend at two or more locations or at two or more computers or smart phones or tablets, you should make a registration for each location or computer or smart phone or tablet so that each location or computer or smart phone or tablet can have its own login credentials to the webinar system.
In the past, we have heard of some attendees attempting unsuccessfully to use Citrix or other desktop sharing applications to share the audio and video from one location to a second location. We have heard that this does not work well. We urge you to avoid problems by registering individually for each intended login computer location.
In case we did not make this clear, you need to understand that the login link that you will receive is good for only one login. If you try to use it for logging in at two or more locations, it is extremely likely that at least one of the login attempts will fail and it would not be surprising if the second login attempt would make some sort of problem for the first login attempt.
Will the webinar be recorded? Many people ask this question. The answer is that maybe we will successfully record the webinar, and maybe we will fail to successfully record it. Either way, the money that you pay to attend the live webinar will not entitle you to view the recording, if we do successfully record the webinar. If you want to get the benefit of paying your registration fee, you need to attend the live webinar. If you miss the live webinar, your consolation is that you will have received the presentation materials and you might get some benefit from reading and studying the presentation materials. If you have paid the registration fee and if you realize you are not going to be able to log in to attend the live webinar, then probably the most productive thing you could do so that your money does not go to waste is to find some deserving colleague and give them the login link as a gift so that they can attend the live webinar.
Keep in mind that even if there were an opportunity to view a recording at a later time, this would not include the ability to ask questions. A live webinar offers the opportunity to ask questions through a chat function.
How to sign up? To register for this program, click here. After you have paid, you will receive a confirming email message with a link for logging in to the webinar itself.
Format. This program is a webinar, meaning a seminar offered over the Web. It is anticipated that at some law firm and corporate locations, the presentation-slide content of the webinar will be projected upon a screen in a conference room. The projection-screen approach can provide a nice way for several people to attend.
Other attendees will view the presentation by themselves, on their own computers or smart phones or tablets.
Written materials will be provided (as a PDF file) shortly before the program starts.
Participants will be able to submit typed questions through the webinar system.
After the webinar has finished, participants will be requested to complete an online evaluation form.
For users who attend by means of a computer, audio will be provided through the attendee’s choice of either computer speakers or a dial-in telephone number. A user with a computer headset can use the headset to listen to the audio. Many attendees will find it convenient to receive the audio through their computer speakers, which is free of any per-minute charge. It will also be possible to dial in to a telephone conference bridge to receive the audio; this will be a toll call with regular per-minute long-distance telephone charges.
You may find it convenient to use a USB speakerphone to broadcast the audio in your conference room.
Are you a smart phone or tablet user? If so, you may wish to try attending using a Gotowebinar app. Before the date of the webinar, please do at least one test webinar as mentioned on the technical support page. On the date of the webinar, please log in at least ten minutes early so that you will have time to try to solve any problems. Plan ahead so that if you cannot get the app to work, you will be able to switch to an ordinary computer connection to attend the webinar.
Technical support on the day of the program. Sometimes when we host a webinar, we receive frantic telephone calls on the day of the webinar from people who have problems. Usually the cause of the problem is something that we cannot help with in any way. Please see our technical support page for technical support.
Other educational programs? You can see other upcoming educational programs from Oppedahl Patent Law Firm LLC.