We’ve become aware of a new trick that Examiners at the USPTO use to force an a
pplicant to file an RCE. I hesitated for a while to blog about this, fearing that this blog article would educate any Examiners that did not already know about this trick. But hopefully the powers-that-be at the USPTO will read this blog article and will take appropriate steps to block the trick. And anyway maybe the word had gotten around the Examining Corps about this trick some time ago, and maybe there aren’t any Examiners that don’t already knew about this trick.
Worsening backlogs at some Global Entry interview centers
Last April I blogged about the unreasonable delays due to backlogs for interview appointments at Global Entry interview centers. Back then, at San Francisco airport, the backlog was five months. Back then, at Portland (Oregon) airport, the backlog was four months. At Denver airport, there was simply no appointment available no matter how long you were willing to wait. The backlog was essentially infinite.
How are things now, in October of 2016? At San Francisco airport, the backlog has worsened to six months. At Portland airport, the backlog has worsened to seven months. And at Denver airport, the backlog is still infinite. No appointments are available there. I checked Los Angeles International airport – the backlog there is six months. Boston Logan Airport has a backlog of nine months.
The folks in charge of Global Entry need to staff their interview locations appropriately to reduce the backlog.
Autumn in Colorado
Oppedahl Patent Law Firm LLC’s office is located not far from the hiking trail from which I took this photograph today. The aspen trees are at peak autumn colors this weekend. (Click on the photograph to see it full size.)
Japanese PCT search fee increases today
The search fee for ISA/JP will increase today for US PCT filers. For a US PCT filer whose PCT application is filed in English, the search fee was previously $1378. Starting today, it will be $1530.
Cancellation petition filed against “Make America Great Again”
Readers will recall (see blog articles here and here and here) that in 2015, Donald Trump filed a number of trademark applications for “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN”. Two are now registered and the other two have Noti
ces of Allowance.
Someone has now filed a cancellation petition seeking to cancel one of the registrations (quoted at right).
The Answer is due November 7, 2016, which I note is a day before election day.
A new WIPO chemical structure searching tool
When I was first in practice some thirty years ago, the way that you kept abreast of any and all developments in IP law was … you paid $1000 per year to subscribe to BNA’s PTC Journal. This came out every two weeks, if I recall correctly, and told its readers about rulemakings, important court cases, and other developments. Some years later it became commonplace for professional organizations like AIPLA and the ABA/IPL to send out an email newsletter reporting important events maybe a week after the event occurred.
How things have changed. Nowadays if I want to know whether something important happened, the way I find out is that one of the IP bloggers blogged about it (see Patently-O and TTABlog and the other bloggers who sponsor “Meet the Bloggers“). Or I learn about it from one or another of the listservs for IP professionals (see some of the listservs here). Or if, like me, you are an adjunct professor on an IP subject, you can benefit from the IP Profs listserv. Generally if something interesting or important has happened, I can be pretty sure that I will hear about it from one of these valuable resources. And I will likely hear about it from one of these resources much sooner than from any of the legacy sources.
Which brings me to today’s posting. Alert listserv member Rick Neifeld posted an article to the PAIR listserv. He wrote:
WIPO is launching a structure search functionality early in October.
By which he means a functionality for searching chemical structures.
Now there have always been resources for searching chemical structures. The ones I have known about over the years were fee-for-service resources from providers such as Orbit and Dialog. I don’t really know but I have to assume that USPTO and the other major patent offices must have always had internal resources for searching chemical structures.
I like to think that I keep on top of many if not most outreach efforts and initiatives from WIPO. And I had never heard that WIPO is launching a structure search functionality, let alone that it would be launched early in October. How did I hear about it? From Rick in the PAIR listserv. Bless his heart he also posted his notes and comments and excerpts from the WIPO presentation slides. You can see them here. It seems that WIPO gave an outreach presentation today, and Rick attended, and later the same day he provided his very helpful notes.
As I understand it from Rick’s notes, this will be an add-on to the existing search functionalities of Patentscope.
Thank you Rick!
Oh by the way, the first poster to correctly identify the chemical in the structure quoted above will receive a piece of swag, namely an official OPLF voltmeter.
US Patent Prosecution Boot Camp – October 25-26 in Washington DC
Anyone who is relatively new to US patent prosecution will benefit fro
m AIPLA’s Patent Prosecution Boot Camp. Now in its eighteenth year, this boot camp offers the opportunity to learn from experienced patent practitioners. From the brochure:
This two-day seminar, also referred to as “boot camp,” is tailored to new practitioners (those having less than two years of experience), or others who want to learn the basics of patent application preparation and prosecution. This comprehensive CLE-accredited seminar includes instructional sessions, hands-on claim drafting, and responding to office actions workshops taught by highly skilled, experienced private and corporate practitioners. At the program’s conclusion, attendees may choose to participate in one of three hands-on claim drafting and responding to office actions workshops in these areas:
- Biotechnology/Chemical
- Electrical/Software
- Mechanical
Where: Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, 2660 Woodley Road NW, Washington, DC 20008-4106.
Yours truly will be one of the presenters.
To learn more, or to register, click here.
Register now for a PCT Seminar in Chicago October 20-21
John Marshall Law School is sponsoring a PCT Seminar on Thursday and Friday, O
ctober 20-21, 2016. From the brochure:
This two-day seminar offers an examination of current practice with regard to the PCT system for patent professionals. A half-day session will focus on an overview of the PCT system, the most recent and future developments in the PCT system as well as covering some of the most important strategic decisions that need to be taken when using the PCT system. This will be followed by a day and a half looking at a detailed analysis of the PCT system, covering best practices and sophisticated tips about the procedural aspects of the PCT. It will cover the process from start to finish including the filing of the applications, preparing the international search, the preliminary examination, and eventually entering the national phase before designated Offices. This course will also offer a platform for the participants to discuss more complex and unusual scenarios and to discuss particularly interesting real-live cases put forth by the instructors or by the attendees’ own experience.
The location is John Marshall Law School, 315 South Plymouth Court, Chicago, IL (map).
The presenters are Matthias Reischle, Deputy Director, PCT Legal Division, WIPO, and yours truly.
To learn more or to register, click here.
How long it takes DO/EO/US to mail filing receipts lately?
We remember those bad old days when DO/EO/US was taking a year and a half to get around to mailing a Filing Receipt in a newly filed entry into the US national phase. The backlog of unattended-to US national-phase filings had gotten so bad that DO/EO/US had to set up a special processing queue for cases in which the applicant had filed a PCT-PPH petition. The idea was that a case deserving of “special” status should not languish for a year or more just because DO/EO/US had fallen so far behind.
Within the past year or two DO/EO/US has managed to be much more prompt about this important task of mailing Filing Receipts. And along with this improvement, DO/EO/US had dropped the special processing queue for cases in which the applicant had filed a PCT-PPH petition.
And indeed in recent months we have seen stretches of time during which many cases were receiving their Filing Receipts a mere two or three weeks after the date that the applicant has perfected the entry into the US national phase.
What’s a bit baffling, however, is to see that there is now more of a spread in the period of delay at DO/EO/US. While a large plurality of cases recently do receive their Filing Receipts promptly (within two or three weeks), an ever-growing fraction of cases sit for some months, untouched by DO/EO/US.
For a case that was not going to get examined any time soon, this is perhaps not a big deal. But for a case in which a Highway petition has been filed, the lack of attention by DO/EO/US goes against USPTO’s policy reasons for supporting the Patent Prosecution Highway in the first place.
What shines a bright light on this is the recent super improvement by the Office of Patent Petitions which, after falling terribly behind, has in recent months done much better in handling of Highway petitions. A year ago it was commonplace to see Highway petitions that had languished for six or seven months untouched by the Office of Patent Petitions. But nowadays the OPP gets kudos for granting Highway petitions in just two to four weeks.
So back to the promptness of DO/EO/US to mail Filing Receipts. As I say, these days a large plurality of cases recently do receive their Filing Receipts promptly (within two or three weeks). But we have cases with granted Highway petitions that still do not have a Filing Receipt despite having the national phase perfected as long ago as May 25 (about four months ago).
One wishes that the managers of DO/EO/US would generate a report from time to time that lists old cases that lack Filing Receipts, and that somebody would try to figure out why the old cases don’t get worked on. Are the laggard cases all assigned to particular laggard workers, for example? I assume that many workers in DO/EO/US work from home. Are the laggard cases all assigned to people who work from home?
How did you hear about Design Day 2016?
I was honored to have an opportunity to play a small role in the planning for Design Day 2016. So I have reviewed the attendee evaluations just now. One of the evaluation questions was “how did you hear about Design Day 2016?” And I am delighted to be able to report that some of the respondents said they heard about it from this very blog, the Ant-Like Persistence blog.