Category: Industrial Designs

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Daylight saving time and WIPO

Keep in mind that Switzerland will turn off daylight saving time today.  Those who are filing documents at the International Bureau — documents that need a same-day filing date — should check to make sure they know what time it is in Switzerland as of today.

For US filers, keep in mind that the US will not turn off DST today.  The US will turn off DST a week from now.

US filers who are getting ready to file a document at the IB should thus pay close attention during this next week to what time it is in Switzerland.

The practical effect for most US filers is that for the next week, you get an extra hour to e-file.  For example if you are in the Mountain Time Zone, normally you rush to file by 4PM if need a same-day filing date at the IB.  But for the next week you can file as late as 5PM and you will still get a same-day filing date at the IB.

Those who are e-filing in ePCT can readily check any time to see what time it is in Geneva, because at the top of any ePCT user screen it says what time it is in Geneva.  Here is a screen shot.  For example right now it is 4:44 AM Mountain Time and as you can see it is 11:44 AM in Geneva.

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What filing date you get when you e-file at RO/IB?

What we are all accustomed to is that when we are picking a Receiving Office for the filing of a new PCT application, a substantial drawback of RO/IB is that we have to worry about the time zone.  For the US-based filer who is selecting between RO/US and RO/IB, the typical difference is six hours.  A filer in the Mountain Time Zone, for example, who is rushing to get a same-day filing date would need to e-file by 10PM if e-filing in RO/US but would typically need to e-file by 4PM if e-filing in RO/IB.

What I did not realize, until quite recently, is that things are quite different when one is e-filing a Hague application (in other words, an international design application rather than an international patent application). Continue reading “What filing date you get when you e-file at RO/IB?”

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Can some design people in Chile and Spain and India and Korea help?

So by now there are six Depositing Offices in the DAS system for purposes of electronic certified copies of design applications. The six Depositing Offices are:

  • Chile (National Institute of Industrial Property)
  • China (Chinese National Intellectual Property Administration)
  • Spain (Spanish Patent and Trademark Office)
  • India (Indian Patent Office)
  • South Korea (Korean Intellectual Property Office)
  • US (United States Patent and Trademark Office)

I have successfully obtained Certificates of Availability for design applications in two of these six Offices, namely China and the US.  You can see exemplary Certificates here:

I would be grateful if a practitioner in Chile were to provide to me a DAS access code for a design priority document from Chile, and if a practitioner in Spain were to provide to me a DAS access code for a design priority document from Spain, and if a practitioner in India were to provide to me a DAS access code for a design priority document from India, and if a practitioner in Korea were to provide to me a DAS access code for a design priority document from Korea.  I suppose the way to do it would be to select a design document that is already a matter of public record, because it is already published or issued.  I would also need the application number and filing date.  I would then be able to obtain a Certificate of Availability and this would provide an opportunity to test out this aspect of the DAS system.

Thank you!

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At the Design Patent Symposium 2018

click image to enlarge

It is delightful to attend the Design Patent Symposium 2018, sponsored by Banner & Witcoff, Ltd., Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C., and George Washington University Law School. This symposium is taking place right now in the NEA building at 1201 16th Street NW, Washington, DC, having begun thus morning at 8:30 AM and continuing through the day to a reception ending at 6:00 PM.

It is a fascinating program (brochure here), with industrial designers, people from the USPTO, people from WIPO, and patent practitioners.  For those who were not able to attend, the presentation materials may be downloaded here.

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Latest news on Mexico and Hague Agreement

These days it is pretty interesting to keep track of the growth of the Hague Agreement (the international filing system for industrial designs).  Since a year ago there had been whispers (blog article October 21, 2017) that Mexico was going to join the Hague Agreement Real Soon Now.  And then came the new successor NAFTA agreement (see blog article of October 2, 2018) which sets forth that Mexico must join Hague by no later than the date of entry into force of the new NAFTA agreement.

Richard Stockton
Richard Stockton

Anyway just now I was delighted to hear from Rich Stockton, who is chair of the AIPLA Industrial Designs Committee, about this particular topic.  He reports that he met recently with some higher-up folks at the Mexican patent office.  They told him that they expect the Mexican legislature will approve the implementing legislation during the current session and that no other major legislative steps remain other than depositing the instrument of accession (and then waiting the requisite three months for the accession to take effect).

He thus tells me that it looks to him as though Mexico will officially join the Hague system in the first few months of 2019.

This is, of course welcome news, and the accession of Mexico to the Hague system will be a welcome development.

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Another fax bites the dust

More and more fax machines and fax numbers are biting the dust.  Here are the most recent announcements (see October 2018 PCT Newsletter):

  • The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand has just announced that it has discontinued use of its fax machine.
  • The Industrial Property Office of Slovakia has announced that with effect from January 14, 2019, it will discontinue the use of its fax machine.

These follow previous announcements from some months ago, for example:

  • On April 1, 2018, WIPO disconnected its fax machine for Madrid-related communications.
  • Oppedahl Patent Law Firm LLC stopped posting a fax number on July 21, 2018.
  • Some months ago WIPO announced that it is considering discontinuing its fax machines for PCT-related communications from the end of 2018.
  • Some month ago WIPO proposed to discontinue the use of facsimile communications for Hague Agreement communications from January 1, 2019.
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USPTO joins DAS as a Depositing Office for designs

There is welcome news that on October 1, 2018, USPTO joined DAS as a Depositing Office for purposes of designs.

This is welcome progress with respect to the ID5 (the five highest volume industrial design Offices).  When people say “ID5”, they mean:

  • CNIPA (the Chinese intellectual property office, formerly known as SIPO)
  • EUIPO (formerly known as OHIM)
  • JPO (the Japanese patent office)
  • KIPO (the Korean intellectual property office)
  • USPTO

At this point, so far as the members of the ID5 are concerned, the progress is as follows:

  • CNIPA is a Depositing Office and Accessing Office for patents and utility models and designs
  • EUIPO unfortunately does not yet belong to DAS.  It is hoped that EUIPO will join DAS Real Soon Now.
  • JPO is a Depositing Office with respect to patents and utility models.  JPO is an Accessing Office with respect to patents, utility models, and designs.
  • KIPO is a Depositing Office with respect to patents and utility models and designs (but see note below).
  • USPTO is a Depositing Office and Accessing Office for patents and designs (but see note below).

The note is that USPTO and KIPO have a legacy relationship in the PDX system.  And unfortunately the design of PDX is that it trumps DAS.  If two Offices have a PDX relationship, this blocks any DAS relationship.  So what needs to happen now is that USPTO needs to pull the plug on its PDX relationship with KIPO.  I blogged about this here.

And of course JPO needs to become a Depositing Office for designs.

And EUIPO needs to become a member of DAS.