Category: Patents

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Does the Abstract matter any more?

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?”

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Register for the AIPLA PCT Seminar

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.

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ISA/IL search fee increases today

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.

 

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Reluctant to migrate from PCT-SAFE to ePCT?

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?”

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ISA/IL search fee to increase on July 1, 2017

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.

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ISA/RU search fee increases today

Today the search fee paid by a US filer for the Russian patent office as International Searching Authority increases from $449 to $482.  (I first reported this here on March 17, 2017.)

Filers who use EFS-Web to file in RO/US, or who use PCT-SAFE or ePCT to file in RO/IB, will not need to worry about getting this right.  Each of those e-filing systems has already been updated today to reflect the new fee.

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USPTO provides a nice user feature in EPAS and ETAS

Those who, like me, often record assignments at the USPTO are accustomed to the steps that are required to e-file in EPAS (electronic patent assignment system) and ETAS (electronic trademark assignment system).  The steps include identifying the assignor and the assignee, and then comes the step of entering the properties for which the assignment is being recorded.   I am delighted to be able to report that USPTO has made this very user friendly for an assignment that applies to many properties. Continue reading “USPTO provides a nice user feature in EPAS and ETAS”

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Backwards progress at USPTO

I have blogged here (in 2015) and here (in 2014) about the need for USPTO to implement SSL (secure sockets layer or “https://”) on all of its external-facing web sites.  I have reminded the USPTO that there is an executive order from the White House directing all US government agencies to do this.  USPTO was very slow to comply, but has made some progress.  One of the last web sites that USPTO managed to migrate to SSL was the Public PAIR web site.

Recently came the disappointing news that USPTO made plans to roll back the functionality of the Public PAIR web site.  In a posting on April 3, 2017, USPTO said:

The USPTO will be performing maintenance on the Public Patent
Application Information Retrieval (Public Pair) beginning at 12:01
a.m., Friday, April 21 and ending at 2 a.m., Friday, April 21 ET.

During the maintenance period, Public PAIR will be unavailable.

Immediately after the maintenance, users will only be able to access
Public PAIR through URLs beginning with HTTP, such as
https://portal.uspto.gov/pair/PublicPair. Past URLs using HTTPS to
access Public Pair, such as
https://portal.uspto.gov/pair/PublicPair, will no longer work.

Now comes an announcement on April 24, 2017:

HTTPS access to Public PAIR

The USPTO’s public facing legacy systems, such as Public PAIR, were not designed to support HTTPS protocol. The agency has worked hard to enhance these legacy systems to support HTTPS. Following the agency’s April 11, 2017 deployment of HTTPS to Public PAIR, some public users reported errors accessing Public PAIR. A decision was made to back-out the new HTTPS capability while the agency investigated a resolution to the issue. We expect to implement a fix and restoration of the HTTPS protocol in the next few weeks. The USPTO is sorry for any inconvenience.

There’s just no excuse for this.  People who administer web sites are well aware that there are off-the-shelf solutions for adding SSL functionality to any legacy web site.  There are modestly priced commercial boxes (simple boxes that you connect between the web server and the Internet) to do this.  For those who cannot afford a modestly priced commercial solution, there are off-the-shelf open-source solutions that run on a simple inexpensive Linux box.  These solutions do not require any modification to the legacy system, and they do not slow down the user access data rates.

Let’s hope USPTO does a Google search or two and learns how to do this.

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An opportunity to save money on a PCT search fee

As I mentioned in a blog post on March 17, the search fee that a a US PCT filer would pay for the Russian patent office will increase on May 1, 2017.  The search fee, presently $449, will increase to $482.

This offers an opportunity to save a little money.  If you are a US filer, and you were thinking about filing a PCT application in which you choose ISA/RU, and you were thinking of filing the PCT application on May 1, just file it instead a day early on April 30.  This will save $33 in fees.