Author: Carl

Posted on

When the new fifteen-year design patent term takes effect?

In a recent blog post I said that May 13, 2015 will be a big day, and one of the reasons it will be a big day is that design patents granted from applications filed on or after that day will enjoy a fifteen-year term.  This is a longer term than the fourteen years with which we are familiar.

In response, alert reader and patent practitioner Karen Oster asked about the many web articles that say that the effective date for the fifteen-year patent term was fourteen months ago on December 18, 2013.  Among them are:

Continue reading “When the new fifteen-year design patent term takes effect?”

Posted on

US makes more progress toward the Hague Agreement

The Hague Agreement is the international filing system for design protection that corresponds to the PCT filing system for international utility patent protection and the Madrid filing system for international trademark protection.  The progress of the United States toward membership and participation in the Hague Agreement has been slow and at times tortuous.  As I blogged here, President Clinton signed the treaty in 1999.  Many years passed before the Senate ratified it in 2007.  Congress needed to pass enabling legislation which finally happened in 2012.  Next the USPTO needed to promulgate proposed Rules, which it did in 2013.  The next important step was for the United States to deposit an “instrument of accession” to the Agreement with WIPO.

Interestingly somehow the United States and Japan managed to coordinate their efforts, and the two countries deposited their instruments of accession on the same day, Friday, February 13, 2015.  You can see WIPO’s press release here.  us-inst-accAnd at right is a photograph (courtesy of WIPO) showing the historic event.  You can see US Ambassador Pamela Hamamoto handing the Instrument of Accession to WIPO Director General Francis Gurry.

Continue reading “US makes more progress toward the Hague Agreement”

Posted on

Helpful webinars about ePCT

Almost daily I will encounter some patent practitioner or patent firm or corporate patent department that uses PCT but that fails to make use of ePCT.  Of course when this happens I encourage the patent practitioner or patent firm or corporate patent department to start using ePCT.  I imagine this to be a bit like the dentist who encourages people to brush and floss, sometimes feeling discouraged with the realization that some will not follow the advice.  Now comes another series of webinars from WIPO explaining how to use ePCT.

Continue reading “Helpful webinars about ePCT”

Posted on

Followup to “PPH Petition Backlog – four months and counting”

(Followup posting here.)

Within our office we try to track our PPH cases pretty carefully. This prompted my recent blog postings here and here and here about the recent substantial worsening of the backlog within the USPTO in considering requests for PPH status.  After months of no progress USPTO has managed to grant a few of our long-pending PPH petitions, and so we have some hard data as just now bad the backlog is in recent weeks.

Continue reading “Followup to “PPH Petition Backlog – four months and counting””

Posted on

Followup to “drinking their own Champagne”

(Update:  Forty-two Patent Practitioners have written to Director Vidal about this.  See blog article.)

Readers of this blog will recall that the Board of Directors of AIPLA adopted a resolution urging the USPTO to give substantial deference in a US national-phase application to the work done earlier by the USPTO in its role as International Searching Authority and International Preliminary Examining Authority.  AIPLA then wrote a letter to the USPTO about this.  I call this (not AIPLA’s terminology!) inviting the USPTO to “drink its own Champagne”.  I blogged about this.  What happened next?

Continue reading “Followup to “drinking their own Champagne””

Posted on

Save the date — AIPLA PCT Seminars in July 2015

(See more recent blog posting with brochure and registration information.)

AIPLA has set the dates and locations for the Patent Cooperation Treaty seminars that will happen this coming July 2015.   Here they are:

  • July 20-21 (Monday and Tuesday) in San Francisco
  • July 23-24 (Thursday and Friday) in Virginia

Those who have attended AIPLA PCT Seminars in the past know that these seminars are very different from the usual “just the facts” PCT seminar.  These seminars have the benefit of spirited interaction among all of the presenters, including experienced patent practitioners from the US and from other countries.

Save the dates on your calendar.

Your blogger will be one of the presenters.

Posted on

Results are in — the 2014 US Design Patent Toteboard

Yes, the results are in.  The Ant-Like Persistence blog is delighted to be able to present the 2014 US Design Patent Toteboard.  This toteboard lists the forty-three highest ranked firms according to the number of US design patents which they obtained for clients.  One corporation also chose to respond and is listed in the toteboard.  These filers between them obtained about 24% of all of the US design patents in 2014.

You can also see corresponding toteboards for 2013 and 2012.