Category: Patents

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Examiner’s Statement of Reasons for Allowance – why we care?

The other day we received a Notice of Allowance in one of our US patent cases.  In the Notice, the Examiner provided an Examiner’s Statement of Reasons for Allowance (ESORFA).  We did what we usually do in such situations — we reported the Notice to the client, along with a suggestion that the client may wish to consider whether it is comfortable with the ESORFA.

(Yes, yet another six-letter initialism being coined.  You saw it here first, folks!  You might think it is an acronym but it’s not.  See this blog article.)

Often the reporting of the Notice of Allowance is the end of it.  The client never offers any comment one way or the other about the ESORFA, we pay the Issue Fee, the patent issues, and no one ever give’s another moment’s thought about the ESORFA.

But in this case I was absolutely delighted when the inventor responding by saying he was not sure what he should be looking for, and wondering how or why he would be uncomfortable.  It is always welcome news when an inventor makes the time and the energy to get involved in the details of the patent process, whether it be the drafting of the claims at the outset or a review of ESORFA at the conclusion, or at points in between.

How does one explain to an inventor how to react to an ESORFA?  I gave it a try. Continue reading “Examiner’s Statement of Reasons for Allowance – why we care?”

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Setting up a tripwire for new filings in EFS-Web and Patentcenter

(Note:  this tripwire feature is feature request FR7.  The “last 30 ack receipts” feature is feature request FR4.)

(Update:  Ideascale does not seem to work any more.  For example this very suggestion by the person mentioned below is no longer to be seen in the Ideascale system.)

In this posting I will talk about three things — a feature that USPTO ought to implement in EFS-Web and in Patentcenter alpha — and a reminder of the existence of the Ideascale system which USPTO has set up for receiving suggestions — and a thanks to a member of the patent community who used Ideascale to offer up the feature that I am now going to write about.

The feature is, USPTO ought to set it up in EFS-Web and in Patentcenter so that it is possible to set up tripwires.  By tripwire I mean a function so that in an automatic way, any new filing of a document by a filer would get communicated to some particular pre-established email address. Continue reading “Setting up a tripwire for new filings in EFS-Web and Patentcenter”

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Wow I am an Ideascale Occupier!

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(Update:  More than a year has passed and few, if any, of the Patentcenter bug reports that I posted to Ideascale have been acted upon by USPTO.  So I have stopped posting to Ideascale.)

USPTO uses a system called Ideascale as a way to collect suggestions and comments from users of PAIR and EFS-Web and the alpha-test of Patentcenter (which will eventually replace PAIR and EFS-Web).

There is a small but fairly dedicated community of USPTO customers who are users of these systems, who regularly post things to Ideascale.  I am one of them.  And I am astonished to learn that I have been awarded the status of “Occupier” in the Ideascale system at the USPTO. Continue reading “Wow I am an Ideascale Occupier!”

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Save the date: PCT Seminar in San Jose on April 4

The Schwegman firm, carrying on a tradition of many years now, will offer a full-day live PCT Seminar in San Jose, California on Thursday, April 4, 2019.  Schwegman provides a wonderful service to the patent community with these seminars, which it provides free of charge.

Yours truly will be teaching this all-day seminar which will take place at the San Jose Marriott hotel.

Save the date!

Not only does this seminar provide a full day of training on the Patent Cooperation Treaty, but it offers invaluable networking opportunities during the breaks.

New topics since last year’s Schwegman PCT seminar will include a discussion of the five types of PCT Declarations, and best use of the DAS system.

When the registration web page becomes available, I will post the link in this blog. This seminar always sells out!  So you don’t want to miss the opportunity to register for this seminar.

If you want to make sure that you hear about the availability of the registration web page right away, make sure you are subscribed to this blog.

 

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USPTO will be closed Monday January 14, 2019

The USPTO will be closed on Monday, January 14, 2019 because of a dusting of snow.  (OPM announcement.)

The small amount of snow giving rise to this closure would not even be noticed in other parts of the US such as the high altitudes of Colorado where Oppedahl Patent Law Firm LLC is located.  (Oppedahl Patent Law Firm LLC will be open as usual on Monday, January 14, 2019.)

The closing of the USPTO means that any response that would be due on Monday, January 14, 2019 will be considered timely if it is filed by Tuesday, January 15, 2019.

 

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Enjoying a patent wall

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Let me tell you about a recent delightful experience.  I was in Manhattan, got to the building where my client Sendyne is located, and  stepped out of the elevator when I reached the floor that I wanted.  I was greeted by Sendyne’s Patent Wall (photograph above, click to enlarge).  What a treat!  You can see how important patents are to this company.  And if you get up close to the plaques, you can see that each patent lists my firm as the “attorney, agent or firm”.  Very gratifying!

I then had the pleasure of sitting down with two of Sendyne’s inventors to discuss some of their most recent inventions.  Barring some surprise, within a year or two we will probably add a few more plaques to this Patent Wall.