How may one monitor the status of a list of US patent applications? Clearly one way to do this is to set up a routine and to carry out manual steps of logging into PAIR daily to check the status. This is tedious and error-prone. What about USPTO’s Patent Docket widget in its MyUSPTO system? Is this a reliable way to monitor the status of a list of US patent applications? Continue reading “Monitoring status of US patent applications”
The problem with USPTO’s proposed non-DOCX penalty
(Update: it is time for you, dear reader to consider signing another letter. See blog posting.)
Until now, it has been optional for a practitioner to file a US patent application in DOCX format rather than in PDF format. But USPTO now proposes to charge a $400 penalty for filing a patent application in non-DOCX format. This is a very bad idea, for reasons that I will discuss in detail. Only if USPTO were to make fundamental changes in its way of receiving DOCX files would it be acceptable for USPTO to impose a penalty for filing in a non-DOCX format.
USPTO needs to follow WIPO’s example, permitting the practitioner to file a “pre-conversion format” version of a patent application along with the DOCX file. In the event of some later problem with USPTO’s rendering of the DOCX file, the practitioner would be permitted to point to the pre-conversion format, which would control in the event of any discrepancy.
Continue reading “The problem with USPTO’s proposed non-DOCX penalty”
Is a US patent applicant required to file an IDS?
A reader of this blog wrote to me to ask “is a US patent applicant required to file an IDS even if the inventor is not aware of any relevant prior art?” The question inspired the blog article that follows. Continue reading “Is a US patent applicant required to file an IDS?”
National Review doesn’t know a patent from a trademark
Sigh. Even as respected a publication as the National Review doesn’t know the difference between a patent and a trademark. Continue reading “National Review doesn’t know a patent from a trademark”
USPTO will be closed July 4
Thursday, July 4, 2019 will be a federal holiday in the District of Columbia. For this reason, the USPTO will be closed on that day. This means that any action or response that would normally be due on July 4, 2019 will be timely if it is done by Friday, July 5, 2019.
AIPLA PCT Seminar – July 22-23
(Updated June 25 to correct the list of presenters.)
The twenty-third annual AIPLA PCT Seminar will take place just a month from now, on Monday and Tuesday, July 22 and 23, 2019. Yours truly will be among the presenters. Continue reading “AIPLA PCT Seminar – July 22-23”
How to send money to ISA/KR or IPEA/KR
One question that comes up often when I am teaching a PCT class is “how do I send money to ISA/KR?” The usual way that this question comes up is that you might select ISA/KR and then receive an Invitation to pay additional fees (“ITPAF”). This blog article describes a quite easy and inexpensive way to send money to ISA/KR. Continue reading “How to send money to ISA/KR or IPEA/KR”
Patent Prosecution Boot Camp went well
The 20th annual Patent Prosecution Boot Camp went well.
Nice article in WIPO’s PCT Newsletter
If you have not already done so, you should of course subscribe to the PCT Newsletter published by WIPO. (To sign up, click here.) The PCT Newsletter comes out monthly and it is very for anyone who uses the PCT.  The newsletters have several kinds of very helpful information. For example …
Upcoming PCT Seminars. Each issue has a calendar of upcoming PCT Seminars, and this lets you plan ahead for your PCT training opportunities. As you can see in the current issue, I will be teaching about PCT several times in the next few months, including:
- Glendale, California on June 6
- Atlanta, Georgia on September 19
- Des Moines, Iowa on October 3-4
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 7
- Cary, North Carolina on November 21-22
Practical Advice.  A particularly helpful section of each PCT Newsletter is the Practical Advice column. This column will pick some topic in PCT practice and will discuss it in depth, often pointing out a way to be really smart about some step in the PCT process, or a trap for the unwary.
The current issue has a Practical Advice column entitled Possible implications of submitting informal drawings when filing the international application which was prompted by my blog article Filing informal drawings in a PCT application. The Practical Advice column is written better than what I wrote! The overall tone of the column is nicer and more friendly to the reader than what I wrote, and the column mentions the ePCT preview function which I did not think to mention.
WIPO also provides a very helpful search function to look up past Practical Advice articles.
The main point here is that if you have not already done so you should subscribe to WIPO’s PCT Newsletter.
Patent Prosecution Boot Camp 2019
The Twentieth Annual Patent Prosecution Boot Camp is underway just now in Philadelphia. I have the honor to serve on a faculty with thirty-six other extremely experienced practitioners who spend their own money for air travel and hotels, and of course they take a hit on their professional billings for a couple of travel days as well as the teaching day. Decades ago, when I had the good fortune that my employer paid for it, I attended a similar seminar organized by the Practicing Law Institute. And as I sat there in the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan those decades ago I lacked even a bit of a clue as to the economic hit being taken by astonishing generosity of the faculty members. I learned so much, and even now from time to time I make use of this or that nugget of practitioner wisdom that someone passed along during that seminar, so many years ago. As just one example if I manage now to draft a decent patent claim, the earliest credit goes to Evelyn Sommer (1925-2016), who taught one of the small-group claim-drafting classes at that seminar.
The only thing one can do is to try, of course, to pay it forward as best we can, and I expect that is exactly why the thirty-six other faculty members are there just like me.
The Boot Camp started yesterday morning and will finish tomorrow. I am headed to Philadelphia now, and my segment (yeah, take a guess, it is about the Patent Cooperation Treaty!) will be tomorrow.
Who taught you how to draft a patent claim? Will you give that person some credit in a comment below?