Only 103 “Super Patent” slots remaining out of 500

Readers will recall my blog article about “Super Patents” and how to get them.  The idea is to file a PCT application and be fortunate enough that it gets accepted into the Collaborative Search and Examination (“CS&E”) pilot program.

This is a pilot program created by the five biggest patent offices (China, Europe, Japan, Korea, US) in which an applicant gets to have its claims searched and examined by all five patent offices.  The pilot program began about a year and a half ago and will wrap up in 2020.  

The way that the pilot program was set up, each of the five Offices was willing to take on the role of ISA for purposes of CS&E in one hundred PCT applications.  Doing the math, this means that all told, five hundred PCT applicants would be so lucky as to get their applications into this program.

Each Office, in its role as ISA, was thus necessarily keeping track of the number of PCT applications that it had accepted into the CS&E program.  Each Office would stop accepting new cases once it hit the limit of one hundred.

One of the offices hit its limit of one hundred a couple of weeks ago, and another office hit its limit just yesterday.  Which raises the natural question, right now in January of 2020, how many slots are still open?  I’ll tell you. Continue reading “Only 103 “Super Patent” slots remaining out of 500″

New book: PCT Forms and PCT Docketing

Update:  The book is now finalized and you can see it here and here.

I’m working on a new book.  It’s entitled Oppedahl on PCT Forms and PCT Docketing.  Right now it is in what I might term beta testing.  The book is version 0.8.  I am providing copies of the book to some folks free of charge in the hopes that they will take a look at the book and maybe make suggestions or corrections.  Then I will finalize the book and release it for general sale. Continue reading “New book: PCT Forms and PCT Docketing”

The PCT in 2019: an end of the year update from WIPO

(You can see the slides here.)

(Updated to include some of the topics.)

It has just now been announced that in just about 24 hours, Matthias Reischle-Park of WIPO will deliver a free-of-charge webinar entitled:

The PCT in 2019: end of the year update

I have learned informally what some of the topics will be:

  • Rule changes (in force and coming next year)
  • color drawings
  • best ways to contact the IB without relying on fax
  • collaborative search
  • WIPO IP Portal

I gather it will last about an hour.  My guess is that if you are a PCT enthusiast or power user, you should attend.  I plan to attend.

To register for the webinar, click here.

How you learn that your case has been accepted into Collaborative Search & Examination?

click to enlarge

Readers will recall my article about Super Patents.  If you want to try to get a Super Patent, you have to file a PCT application in one of the participating Receiving Offices and you have to select one of the participating International Searching Authorities (ISAs) and you have to file a form requesting acceptance into the Collaborative Search & Examination (CS&A) pilot program.  And you have to get incredibly lucky to get one of the very small number of slots open for applicants in this pilot program.

Which raises the very interesting question — if you do all of these things, how do you find out if you got accepted into the pilot program?  How do you find out whether your PCT application will receive an International Search Report and Written Opinion that resulted from the collaborative effort of five International Searching Authorities?  

Just now I was delighted to learn that one of our firm’s clients got one of the small number of coveted slots in CS&E.  But how did we learn this good news?  How, as a general matter, does one learn that one has been accepted into this pilot program?  Maybe you already knew the answer, but I did not.  I was astonished at the answer. Continue reading “How you learn that your case has been accepted into Collaborative Search & Examination?”

Be sure to participate in WIPO’s 2019 PCT User Survey

Every two years, WIPO surveys its users.  WIPO’s goal is to help determine which areas of the PCT services provided by the International Bureau could be improved.  If you would like to make sure that you receive this year’s questionnaire when WIPO has it ready, follow the instructions in this article from the November 2019 PCT Newsletter.

e-filing at WIPO — back to normal

For the past week the situation for e-filing at WIPO, for most people in the US, has been that the local time to e-file so as to get a same-day filing date in Switzerland has been different from usual.  (The reason for this is that a week ago, people in Switzerland turned their clocks back.) But as of today, people in the US have turned their clocks back.  So things are back to normal.

For example if you are in the Mountain time zone, once again as of today you will be counting toward 4PM local time to get a same-day filing date in Switzerland.  (For the past week the answer was 5PM.)

Time zones and ePCT

Yesterday I blogged about the fact that Europe and US do their daylight saving time changes on different weekends:  E-filing at WIPO – you get an extra hour.  This prompted Ann Bardini of WIPO to write to me to offer a reminder of some of the features of ePCT that help users to keep track of when midnight is coming and when a filer’s last possible filing date is imminent.  With her permission I have more or less converted her email message into the following guest blog posting. Continue reading “Time zones and ePCT”