Bluesky: @oppedahl.com
Here is a quotation from an email that one of my colleagues sent to a client today:
We received a telephone call from the Examiner in the subject application.
The Examiner confirmed that the mention of a rejection under 35 U.S.C. 101 in the recent office action was a typographical error.
Wow, it would be so nice to receive more such phone calls! I do think that such telephone calls would promote science and the useful arts.
We are all familiar with systems that force the user to select a password using a complexity rule. You know, the rules that say that the password is required to contain an upper case letter and a lower case letter and a numerical digit and at least one character that requires at least two hands to type on a keyboard.
And we are all familiar with systems that force the user to change his or her password frequently — every few months for example.
It turns out that these rules are outdated and should be scrapped.
Continue reading “Password complexity rules are out of date”
The intellectual property community benefits each time another Office joins the Digital Access Service (DAS).
The good news is that on November 1, 2017, the Eurasian Patent Office (EAPO) will join DAS.
EAPO will participate with DAS in both directions:
The participation will include color documents as well as gray scale and black and white documents.
This is very good news.
Perhaps the biggest patent office (in terms of volume of patent filings) that has not yet joined DAS is the European Patent Office. Here is a set of slides which EPO presented in May of 2015. At slide 8, the EPO said:
It will surely be a welcome development when EPO joins DAS.
Another welcome development will be when EUIPO joins DAS, which will facilitate exchange of priority documents for the purpose of industrial design applications.
(See followup article on EPO’s plans to join DAS.)
In the EFS-Web listserv, a practitioner posts this question:
We have decided to go paperless for the future and to destroy all of our archived paper files for the period since every application appears on the PTO PAIR Image File Wrapper. Does anyone know what date the PTO began imaging every application filed? I know for a while they were going back and imaging some files, but not all. I want to know after what date we can be confident that the image file wrapper is in PAIR.
In this blog post I will try to answer the “what date” question and I will offer a thought or two about how a practitioner might decide which files can be destroyed.
Continue reading “How to decide when to destroy an old patent file?”
It will be recalled that on September 1, 2017 the search fee paid by US filers of PCT applications for the EPO searching authority increased from $1992 to $2099. Now it has been announced that on December 1, 2017 this fee will increase again, this time to $2238. Continue reading “Search fee for ISA/EP to increase on December 1”
If you want to be trendy, modern, and up-to-date, you can now e-file “docx” files at the USPTO. If you do this, not only will you be trendy, modern, and up-to-date, but you will also likely encounter fewer instances in the future in which you need to request a Certificate of Correction or a corrected publication. Read on to learn how to be trendy, modern, and up-to-date. Continue reading “E-filing docx files at the USPTO”
A member of the PCT listserv asks:
Am I missing something about what is so great about preparing an PCT application package via ePCT?
For most all of my PCT applications, I have to file with the RO/US and elect the ISA/US. Thus, in such a situation, I understand that the only thing ePCT is good for is to prepare the Zip file as one has to use EFS-Web to file the Zip file, the application papers, and pay the fees.
To me, the ePCT interface is cumbersome, more so than the PCT-Safe software.
So, I don’t understand what is so great about ePCT… Can someone enlighten me?
My comments are below. Continue reading “What’s so great about ePCT?”
It will be recalled that recently the USPTO announced that it will change the way that electronic certified copies of priority documents are transmitted between the USPTO and the Japanese Patent Office. The change takes effect today. Among other things, this will affect how you complete your Application Data Sheet to present a priority claim to a Japanese patent application.
You can read about it in my blog post from September 24, 2017.
(Note that this article was posted in 2017. The reader should bring himself or herself up to date before proceeding. For example the MPEP now adds a different and supposedly “preferred” fax number. And the amount of the government fee has changed.)
Many readers doubtless already know how to get a faxed Foreign Filing License from the USPTO. But a recent posting on the EFS-Web listserv prompts me to post this article describing the Best Practice for such a request. Continue reading “Getting a faxed Foreign Filing License from the USPTO”
For the past year or so, it has been taking the USPTO around 4-5 weeks to issue a patent. Continue reading “How long it takes USPTO to issue a patent”
