For the next week, an extra hour available for WIPO filings

Filers in the Patent Cooperation Treaty, Madrid Protocol, and Hague Agreement systems (utility patents, trademarks, and industrial designs) know that it is important to keep always in mind when midnight will arrive in Geneva, where WIPO is located.

For a PCT filer, this matters because to get a same-day filing date, a PCT application being filed in RO/IB will (usually) need to be filed by 4 PM Mountain Time.  The same is true for filing an Article 19 amendment.  The same is true if you are using ePCT to file a Demand and Article 34 amendment.

For a Madrid filer, this matters among other things for the payment of decade renewal fees.

For a Hague filer, this matters for the the filing of an international design application at the IB.

The point of today’s post is that starting yesterday, and for the next week, you get an extra hour to get a same-day filing date.  The reason is that Europe and the US carry out their daylight saving time transitions on different days that are a week apart.

This means that you could file as late as 5 PM Mountain Time (instead of the usual 4 PM) and still get a same-day filing date.

Things will return to normal a week from now, on November 5, 2016.

A chance to save a little money on search fees

As I mentioned in an earlier blog article, the fee that ISA/SG charges per invention to carry out a PCT search will increase on November 1, 2017.  The fee charged in US dollars will increase from $1552 to $1645.

This offers an opportunity to save a little money, if a US filer is planning to file a PCT application in the near future and is planning to pick the Singapore patent office as the international searching authority.  Just get the application filed prior to November 1.

What’s so great about ePCT?

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?”

Upcoming opportunities to learn about PCT

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:

USPTO doing well lately with PPH petition timeliness

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!

Why you probably can’t send international faxes any more

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”