Bluesky: @oppedahl.com
As I mentioned a couple of days ago, by statute, any issued US patent or US trademark registration must be “signed by the Director”. So the question “who is the Director?” is not an idle question.
As of today (screen shot at right), the Department of Commerce web site still lists the position of Director as “vacant”.
Yesterday’s issued US patents and US trademark registrations bore Michelle Lee’s signature, just as on Tuesdays before.
As a reminder some PCT search fees will change today for US PCT filers.
The ISA/EP fee will drop 5.3%, to $1992. As of today, for the first time in thirty-eight years, this will be cheaper than ISA/US (for large entities).
The ISA/KR fee will drop 5.4%, to $1114. As before, the real bargain at ISA/KR is the cost of the second through nth inventions will still only cost a couple of hundred dollars each.
The ISA/JP fee will drop 10.7%, to $1372.
The ISA/IL fee will drop 2.8%, to $911.
For a filer that counts the search fee price as a big factor in the selection of searching authority, these fee changes leave roughly unchanged the ranking of searching authorities by cost.
For a filer that uses EFS-Web or ePCT as the mechanism for e-filing of a PCT application, you do not need to worry about accidentally paying the wrong fee, because the e-filing system will automatically quote the correct fee.
There are still many other factors which might influence an applicant’s selection of International Searching Authority, as I summarize here.
(Corrected thanks to David Boundy, as to which Director succeeded which.)
Normally the statutory requirement that a patent issued by the USPTO, or a trademark registration certificate issued by the USPTO, “shall be signed by the Director” (35 U.S. Code § 153 and 15 U.S. Code § 1057) is sort of boring. But just now, the USPTO expressly refuses to say who is the Director of the USPTO. What does this mean for patents and trademark registrations that have issued on recent Tuesdays? Continue reading “Patents and trademark registrations “shall be signed by the Director””
Many patent offices around the world have e-filing systems for applicants. The Israel patent office launched an e-filing system a couple of years ago. I wonder how many readers are aware that there is an email discussion group for users of the e-filing system at the Israel patent office?
Continue reading “An email discussion group for e-filers in the Israel patent office”
One of the important listservs that all US patent practitioners should subscribe to is the PAIR listserv. This is a listserv designed, oddly enough, for users of PAIR. Earlier today, alert listserv member William B. Slate posted a screen shot from PAIR showing that the “search by customer number” menu was missing. And he’s right. It was missing. Later it returned in PAIR. William’s posting to the listserv prompted me to say a few words about how PAIR actually works and why it is actually cause for astonishment any time that PAIR actually works. Continue reading “Behind the scenes in PAIR and EFS-Web”
Gary Smith of the PCT Learning Center will be teaching about the Patent Cooperation Treaty in Los Angeles on Tuesday, March 7. You can sign up for the morning part only (“PCT Boot Camp”) or the afternoon part only (“PCT Strategies Session”) or both (“The Essential PCT”).
To learn more, or to register, click here.
The PCT Learning Center, with support from the World Intellectual Property Organization, will be sponsoring a seminar about the Patent Cooperation Treaty in San Francisco on Monday, March 13. The presenters will be Gary Smith and yours truly.
You can sign up for the morning part only (“PCT Boot Camp”) or the afternoon part only (“PCT Strategies Session”) or both (“The Essential PCT”).
For more information, or to register, click here.
Netflix has a delightful documentary series on industrial design. You can read about it on the Netflix web site and you can see the official Netflix trailer. Here is an Engadget review.
It looks like there are still seats available for the PCT Seminar that will take place this Thursday in San Jose. I say this because the registration web page is still accepting registrations. I must assume that the program will soon be sold out, so people should register now.
This Seminar is being provided free of charge by the patent firm Schwegman, Lundberg & Woessner P.A. with additional sponsorship by the World Intellectual Property Organization.
I will be the presenter for this Seminar. I really enjoy presenting this subject matter and I think the Seminar will be a lot of fun. I urge readers to register and attend.
The year 2006 was a remarkable year for the patent community in the United States. Jon Dudas was the Director of the USPTO then, and in the USPTO’s annual report, he reported that the allowance rate had been successfully reduced to 54 percent. In the annual report Director Dudas stated, as a matter of some pride, that “at 54 percent, the patent allowance rate was … the lowest on record.”
2006 was also the year in which Mr. Dudas launched the Accelerated Examination program for patent applicants. Now in 2017 it seems likely the AE program will be brought to a close.