Update: You missed the live webinar? You can see the recording here.
Any would-be PCT applicant that has the ability to use the Patent Cooperation Treaty at all, always has at least two Receiving Offices to choose from. Saying the same thing differently, there is never any situation where a PCT filer only has one Receiving Office available.
There are always some advantages and disadvantages to the various Receiving Offices. It would be a big mistake if any patent practitioner were to assume that it is always the best to use some particular Receiving Office. Even if there are many reasons why some particular RO is nearly always the best choice for a particular filer, it will always turn out that there are some specific situations where a different RO is a better choice. The practitioner who fails to inform himself or herself about the factors that might prompt the selection of an RO that is different from one’s “usual” RO does so at his or her peril.
A PCT filer from the US always has at least two Receiving Offices to choose from, including:
- The Receiving Office of the International Bureau (RO/IB)
- The Receiving Office of the USPTO (RO/US)
What are the advantages and disadvantages of these two ROs? What are aspects of a particular patent application that might make a big difference to an applicant in the applicant’s process of selecting an RO?
As a bonus topic we will talk about ways that power users can use ePCT when filing in RO/US and in RO/IB, and we will talk about ways to transfer funds to the IB. We will also talk about recording of assignments at the USPTO with respect to PCT applications that have been e-filed in RO/US and RO/IB.
When and where? Wednesday, November 17, 2021, Noon to 1:40 PM Mountain Time.
Format: Live webinar.
Cost? Thanks to generous support from WIPO, this webinar will be free of charge.
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
In our evaluation questionnaires we usually ask “is there any topic that you would like to see Carl Oppedahl cover in some future webinar?” Almost always at least one attendee will respond with something along the lines of “any topic that Mr. Oppedahl feels like talking about.”
CLE accreditation? This program has received CLE accreditation in Colorado for two CLE units. You can see the Notice of Accreditation here.
What about CLE credit in states other than Colorado? In some states the paperwork for CLE accreditation is extremely burdensome. In some states the required fees are unreasonably high. Many states nowadays try to shift the burden of recordkeeping regarding attendance away from the CLE agency and onto the CLE provider, and require that the CLE provider forward attendance information electronically and in bulk to the CLE agency. For such a state, it is pointless to even think about trying to be a CLE provider unless there is some reason to think that one will regularly get dozens or hundreds of registrations from attendees in that state. We have an impression that in some states, the CLE paperwork and recordkeeping and reporting requirements are set up to favor one or two in-state CLE providers and to tolerate half a dozen big nationwide CLE providers, and to exclude everyone else including small local independent CLE providers such as our firm.
If we were to set a goal of doing the paperwork and recordkeeping and reporting for all of the states that have CLE accreditation procedures, we would have to charge registration fees of hundreds of dollars per program and even then I suspect we would lose money on some programs. Instead, by leaving it to you to try to navigate the paperwork burden in your state, we are able to keep our registration fees much lower.
What we have heard is that some attendees from some states other than Colorado have successfully gotten credit in their own state by handing in the Uniform Certificate of Attendance that we provide. Some attendees have kindly reported back to us about their successes as you can see here.
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. We hope we will succeed, and we hope we can post a recording of the webinar for later viewing.
Keep in mind that if you were to view a recording, this would not include the ability to ask questions. A live webinar offers the opportunity to ask questions through a “question” function.
How to sign up? To register for this program, click on the big button above. After you register, you should receive a confirming email message. If you do not receive the confirming email message, consider the possibility that you might have mistyped your own email address when paying the money. Another possibility is that you may have asked the GotoWebinar company (also known as LogMeIn) not to send you any emails at all, by clicking “unsubscribe” links in the past when receiving past emails from the GotoWebinar company. If you did that, then you have no one but yourself to blame if the GotoWebinar company is not sending you any emails at all.
How may I receive the webinar materials? On the day of the webinar, you will receive at least two email messages with a link for downloading the materials for the webinar. One such email message should arrive about an hour before the starting time of the webinar, and another such email message should arrive about three hours before the starting time of the webinar. If you do not see such email messages, ask yourself whether you received a confirming email message back when you registered for the program. If you did not, then maybe you mistyped your own email address when you paid the money to register. If so, then this would explain why you are not receiving the expected email messages on the day of the webinar.
The webinar materials will include a set of the presentation slides as well as a copy of the program brochure and a Uniform Certificate of Attendance for use in seeking CLE credit.
Keep in mind too that if you register for the webinar with less than an hour to go before the starting time of the webinar, then you will not receive the email message about downloading the materials that is supposed to reach you an hour before the starting time.
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.
Participants will be able to submit typed questions through a “question” function in 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.
Group viewing. We hear from our attendees that one of the most pleasant and productive ways to attend one of our webinars is by means of group viewing. Pick a conference room or some other comfortable setting. Make sure, of course, to have a writing surface available for each attendee, since this is required by most state CLE accreditation rules. Set up a large-screen monitor with an HDMI cable to display the program, or use a computer data projector to show the program on a big screen. Use a USB speakerphone to broadcast the audio. Keep a keyboard handy so that when attendees have questions, somebody can type in the questions in the “ask questions” box in the webinar system.
Beverages during the group viewing? The plain fact is that most of the topics upon which we provide presentations have the potential to be very dry. You do not know the full meaning of “very dry” until you have suffered through the first thirty minutes or so of a discussion of some of the finer points of the Patent Cooperation Treaty or the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, and then you glance at a clock and you realize that there are another seventy minutes to go before we are done. You may thus find it helpful to plan ahead and to arrange to be well rested for the webinar. One approach for a beverage is to consume some caffeinated beverages ahead of time and to have refills available during the program. Another approach for a beverage during the group viewing would be to provide half a glass of wine to all attendees at about the half-way point. This is very much a matter of personal choice.
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.
Cutoff time for registrations. Please plan ahead and register with at least one hour to spare before the webinar. We can offer no assurances that an attempted webinar registration will succeed if you try to do it with less than one one hour remaining before the starting time of the webinar.
Other educational programs? You can see other upcoming educational programs from Oppedahl Patent Law Firm LLC.