The European Patent Office has announced November 1, 2018 as the date that it will join the DAS system. This brings all of the members of the IP5 to the DAS system, and it brings the number of participating Offices to nineteen.
There’s a special opportunity to learn some advanced PCT in Manhattan on November 8. Yours truly is the instructor.
The course is Patent Administration II: Building on a Solid Foundation, a sequel to Patent Resources Group’s trusted course for patent support professionals. Early registration pricing is available through October 22. For more information or to register, click here.
This course is intended for patent Support Professionals who have taken PRG’s Patent Administration: A Foundation for Success course or who have at least 3 years’ experience. It is a four-day course and I will be teaching day 4, including these topics:
Knowing when and how to file PCT Declarations with a PCT Application
Leveraging use of the Patent Prosecution Highway with PCT
Use of the new Collaborative Search and Examination program in PCT
Using ePCT to send SFD’s (subsequently filed documents) to International Searching Authorities
Advanced use of the WIPO DAS (document access service) including Certificates of Availability and setting up Alerts
This program includes an office-by-office discussion of the various PCT Declarations such as declaration number 2 (entitlement to file) and declaration number 3 (entitlement to claim priority). So far as I know, no PCT course has ever until now treated PCT Declarations in such detail. This is a unique and first-time opportunity for patent support professionals to learn really advanced patent topics including really advanced PCT topics.
For many years we have known the Chinese intellectual property office as SIPO (State Intellectual Property Office). The news is that on August 28, 2018, this office changed its name to CNIPA (Chinese National Intellectual Property Administration, PRC).
I am pleased to see that yet another Office has joined DAS. The National Institute of Industrial Property of Chile became both a Depositing Office and an Accessing Office, with respect to patents, utility models, and designs, on October 1, 2018. This is welcome news.
[Note from Carl Oppedahl: I received this text from a reader who suggested that I post it as a guest blog article. It is posted anonymously, for reasons that will become clear. Maybe you find it as interesting to read as I did!]
You will not need to worry about accidentally paying an incorrect fee amount, because the e-filing systems have already been updated to reflect the new fee amount. For filers in RO/US, the EFS-Web system has already been updated. And for filers in RO/IB, the ePCT system has already been updated.
On September 25, 2018, the Government of Malawi deposited its instrument of accession to the Madrid Protocol with WIPO’s Director General, making Malawi the 102nd member of the Madrid System, which now covers 118 countries. The Protocol will enter into force for Malawi on December 25, 2018.
Starting from December 25, a trademark owner in Malawi can file a Madrid Protocol application to pursue protection in one or more Offices outside of Malawi. And starting from that date, a trademark owner outside of Malawi can file a Subsequent Designation to Malawi (or can file a new Madrid Protocol application designating Malawi).
It is recalled that the Patent Cooperation Treaty entered into force on January 24, 1978, initially with 18 contracting states. But perhaps not all readers appreciate that Malawi was one of those initial 18 contracting states for the PCT! Saying this differently, Malawi was more trendy, modern, and up-to-date about the PCT than most of the 152 present-day members of the PCT. Nobody joined PCT sooner than Malawi!