The Patent Cooperation Treaty seminar which took place in Silicon Valley on October 16-18, 2018 went well, I think. I enjoyed it and I think the attendees enjoyed it as well. Continue reading “Silicon Valley PCT Seminar was a success”
EPO has announced November 1 as the date it will join DAS
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.
Continue reading “EPO has announced November 1 as the date it will join DAS”
Learn about some advanced PCT in New York on November 8
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.
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.
New name for the Chinese intellectual property office
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).
The new internet domain name and web site are https://english.cnipa.gov.cn/.
Chile joins DAS
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.
A guest post from an alert reader
[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!]
This is a long e-mail, but I hope that you will read it. I want to thank you for the blog that you posted last Saturday, because it saved me from a major malpractice exposure. Continue reading “A guest post from an alert reader”
Three seminars in the US about EPO for paralegals
The European Patent Office (EPO) will sponsor three seminars for US‑based patent practitioners, paralegals and their administrative staff. Continue reading “Three seminars in the US about EPO for paralegals”
NAFTA 2.0 and patents and trademarks
The new NAFTA agreement has some very interesting consequences for patents and trademarks. Continue reading “NAFTA 2.0 and patents and trademarks”
ISA/AU search fee dropped today
The fee to be paid by a US PCT filer for a search carried out by IP Australia dropped today, from $1722 to $1631.
I mentioned this in a previous blog post.
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.