At various times in the past, the USPTO has accumulated sizeable backlogs in its not-yet-handled PPH petitions. But these days USPTO has been keeping up quite well.
We try to track this pretty closely. The most recent half dozen PPH petitions that we filed at the USPTO were all acted upon at the USPTO within about six or seven weeks of filing.
Kudos to the USPTO for being timely these days with PPH petitions!
A couple of weeks ago I had the great honor to visit at WIPO with the heads of some of the PCT processing teams. These are the people at the International Bureau who interact with callers (applicants and patent practitioners) who have questions and problems relating to PCT. One of the things that they mentioned to me, that I found puzzling when I first heard it, is that in recent months they have received ever-increasing numbers of complaints from people who call to report that they try to send faxes to the International Bureau and are unable to do so. Upon reflection I now realize the likely cause of this problem. And it is definitely not that there is some recent malfunction in WIPO’s fax machines.
Continue reading “Why you probably can’t send international faxes any more”
There are quite a few upcoming opportunities to learn about the Patent Cooperation Treaty.
Of course a very good way to learn of upcoming learning opportunities about PCT is to check the PCT Seminar Calendar at the web site of WIPO. WIPO updates this calendar frequently.
Upcoming programs include:
Readers will recall (perhaps from my blog post of July 15) that the search fee for ISA/EP will increase (for US filers) on September 1, 2017. This offers an opportunity to save a little money. Continue reading “A chance to save a little money on PCT search fees”
The PCT rules and Applicant’s Guide talk about what should go into an Abstract. In the PCT system it is up to the International Searching Authority to enforce the rules about Abstracts. WIPO is inviting comments (see Circular PCT 1517) on whether the rules and guide should be revised. Such revisions, if they were to happen, would change what the ISA looks for when it reviews an Abstract.
Comments are due September 30, 2017. If you would like to participate in a listserv committee to prepare and file comments, join the PCT listserv (if you are not already a member) and join in the discussion there. What follows are a few thoughts about Abstracts. Continue reading “Does the Abstract matter any more?”
There are a few seats still available for the AIPLA PCT Seminar. This will be Monday and Tuesday, July 24-25, 2017 in Crystal City, Virginia.
Yours truly is among the presenters for this seminar.
For more information or to register, click here.
The search fee for US applicants at the EPO will increase on September 1, 2017. The search fee is presently $1992 but will increase to $2099. Here is how the search fees will rank after the fee change: Continue reading “Search fee for ISA/EP to increase on September 1”
As I reported on May 5, 2017, the Israel Patent Office made plans to increase the search fee for US filers from $911 to $963. The fee change takes effect today.
At the present time, very few US PCT filers pick ISA/IL. So this fee increase will not affect very many US PCT filers.
Most US filers file their PCT applications in EFS-Web because most US filers use RO/US for their PCT filings. EFS-Web was updated today to reflect this new fee amount. So there is not much risk of a US filer accidentally paying the old (smaller) fee.
A colleague at a very well known patent firm asks this:
Some of our clients (a few very large, sophisticated patent clients) refuse to let us move from PCT-Safe to ePCT for their matters since they claim the ePCT servers are located outside the US and that, at a minimum, a foreign-filing license would first be required prior to filing. Do you have any related experiences with clients? If so, how did you address their concerns?
First let me offer a compliment to those companies. It is really good that they think about the FFL issue. A company (or a practitioner) that fails to pay attention to FFL issues can really run into trouble later. Continue reading “Reluctant to migrate from PCT-SAFE to ePCT?”
The Israel Patent Office presently charges a search fee of $911 for US filers. On July 1, 2017 this fee will increase to $963.
At the present time, very few US PCT filers pick ISA/IL. So this fee increase will not affect very many US PCT filers.
