October is a busy travel month for me. Here are some of my upcoming speaking engagements: Continue reading “Speaking in Toronto, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Washington in October”
Nice feature in ePCT – fee payments
There’s a nice new feature in ePCT. It used to be that if you were to file a new PCT application in RO/IB, and if you were to say that you plan to pay by means of a credit card, that what would happen is later (some days later) you would receive an email message with a link to a web page inviting you to pay the fees.
Now the ePCT system takes care of everything all at once. When you click “submit” to e-file the PCT application, and when you say you would like to pay the fee by credit card, then a new screen appears that permits you to type in the credit card number and other information. You can finish the e-filing session with the knowledge that you have indeed taken care of the fee payment.
This is good for several reasons.
First, it saves you having to docket to check for the arrival of the several-days-later email to pay the fee. (We estimate that every time we have to set and clear a docket, we incur an internal cost of something like $50.)
Second, it gets the fees into the RO’s hands sooner. Which means that the search fee gets into the hands of the ISA sooner. Which means the International Search Report and Written Opinion arrive sooner.
Korean PCT search fee to drop on October 1
The fee for a US PCT filer to choose the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) as an International Searching Authority (ISA) is presently $1219. On October 1, 2015 it will drop to $1125. Continue reading “Korean PCT search fee to drop on October 1”
Filing a PCT application at the USPTO with no US applicants?
A member of the PCT listserv asked:
On a US application filed yesterday with non-US inventors (no US assignee) and a PCT filing deadline of today, we filed through the USPTO and got a PCT application number, we just could not upload it as a PCT-Safe Zip file. The USPTO PCT Helpline said it was okay to file through the USPTO, just a $240 transmittal charge. We uploaded the PCT-101 request as a separate document. Will this be enough to secure a PCT filing date?
The answer is “maybe yes”, depending on the detailed situation. Continue reading “Filing a PCT application at the USPTO with no US applicants?”
Maximizing patent term (was “certified copy needed?”)
A member of the EFS-Web listserv, an email discussion group for patent practitioners, posed this question:
We filed a US continuation application claiming priority to a PCT application filed in the EP receiving office. (The PCT application had no priority claim.) We filed the application by the 12-month convention deadline at the client’s request.
I do not think we need to provide a certified copy of the PCT, but can anyone confirm?
The question as presented turns out to be easy to answer — no, if you don’t want to provide a certified copy, you could avoid having to do so. But it would be at the cost of a year of patent term. The real question is “how may I avoid flushing a year of patent term down the drain?” Continue reading “Maximizing patent term (was “certified copy needed?”)”
Yet another kind of “walking corpse” US patent
(This article is a duplicate of a previous article.)
Last chance to attend AIPLA PCT Seminar
Tomorrow and Friday are you last chance to attend the Nineteenth Annual AIPLA PCT Seminar. This will be at the Hilton in old town Alexandria. Walk-in registrations are welcome. See details here.
The previous Seminar, which took place this past Monday and Tuesday, was in San Francisco. It went quite well.
USPTO gets it wrong on petitions to revive
We’ve had reason to review half a dozen cases in the past year in which, so far as we can see, the USPTO was completely wrong to dismiss a Petition to Revive. In some cases the USPTO bounced the petition on the grounds that the statement that the delay was unintentional was not signed by the applicant, and in one case the USPTO bounced the petition on the grounds that the statement that the delay was unintentional was not signed by all of the applicants. As I say, it appears the USPTO was completely wrong in its handling of the petitions to revive. Continue reading “USPTO gets it wrong on petitions to revive”
Someone changed the title of my PCT application?
A member of the PCT Listserv (which you should join) asked:
WIPO (or the ISA) changed the title of my PCT application. But I can’t work out when/where/how/why it was done. The A2 publication has one title (the one we gave it). The A3 publication has a slightly different title. Interestingly, the change narrowed the title in a similar way to the way the Written Opinion said that the claimed invention should be narrowed. Any suggestions?
Continue reading “Someone changed the title of my PCT application?”
Best Practices for docketing PCT
Here are a few thoughts about Best Practices for docketing and the Patent Cooperation Treaty.
(Thanks to alert reader Lynn F. McMiller who pointed out a typo in the article. Lynn will be receiving a free copy of the Bodenhausen book.)
(By the way, if you have not already done so, I suggest you sign up for the Nineteenth Annual AIPLA PCT Seminar, which is a week and a half from now. See this blog article for details.) Continue reading “Best Practices for docketing PCT”