Hello readers! On Wednesday, May 10, 2023 I presented a webinar about the malpractice risks of e-filing a patent application in DOCX format under the USPTO’s DOCX initiative, for those who use Microsoft Word. On Friday, May 12, 2023 I presented a webinar about the malpractice risks of e-filing a patent application in DOCX format under the USPTO’s DOCX initiative, for those who use non-Microsoft word processors.
The webinars got recorded, and the recordings have now been edited into usable format for later viewing. You can see the May 10 recording here (1:29 in length) and you can download the presentation materials here. You can see the May 12 recording here (1:10 in length) and you can download the presentation materials here.
Hello readers! On Wednesday, May 10, 2023 I presented a webinar about the malpractice risks of e-filing a patent application in DOCX format under the USPTO’s DOCX initiative. The webinar got recorded, and the recording has now been edited into usable format for later viewing. You can see the recording here and you can download the presentation materials here. (Update: the recording of the May 12 webinar is also now available.)
The USPTO requires each trademark applicant to reveal its own email address when filing a US trademark application. The USPTO promises that if the applicant is represented by an attorney, then only the attorney’s email address will be revealed to the public, and:
Tthe email address listed in the owner field for trademark applicants who are represented by a qualified U.S. attorney will not be publicly viewable.
On July 1, 2023, the State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania will become even more trendy, modern and up-to-date. That is the date that the Lithuanian patent office will commence participation in the DAS system in four new ways:
as a Depositing Office for purposes of national industrial design applications,
as a Depositing Office for purposes of national trademark applications,
as an Accessing Office for purposes of national industrial design applications, and
as an Accessing Office for purposes of national trademark applications.
The Lithuanian patent office has already been a participant in the DAS system since January 1, 2023 in these ways:
as a Depositing Office for purposes of national patent applications;
as an Accessing Office for purposes of national patent applications; and
as an Accessing Office for purposes of PCT patent applications.
The two-letter code (ISO-3166 code) for this Office is “LT”. The web site of the Lithuanian patent office may be seen here.
(Update: a recording of the Terrifying Tales webinar is now available.) Those who are considering filing a patent application at the USPTO in DOCX should inform themselves of the professional liability risks of doing so. A first way to learn about this is to watch recordings of my recent webinars about this. A second way will be to attend Terrifying Tales of the USPTO’s DOCX Filing System, presented by two partners in the Fitch Even law firm. The webinar, which is free of charge, will take place on May 23. To find out more about that webinar, or to register, click here.
I can’t figure out how I missed this! If you can satisfy fourteen conditions as a first-time patent application filer at the USPTO, you can get your patent application examined faster. Continue reading “First-time filer expedited examination”
If you are a PCT user, you need to register for a webinar which EPO will present on May 9, 2023. You can read about it, and you can register, here.
The webinar will take place starting at 10AM Mountain Time on Tuesday, May 9. The webinar is free of charge.
The European Patent Office (EPO) is offering a 1½-hour online seminar for US paralegals and agents dedicated to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). This seminar is an opportunity to find out more about the services provided by the EPO and the latest developments in the PCT system as well as getting practical information on the related EPO’s online services. Topics to be discussed include:
PCT procedure before the EPO as International Authority including practical examples
Payments and Reimbursement
New secure online access
Online filing possibilities
Electronic Mailbox for PCT agents/applicants
Questions & Answers
I think that for most US attendees, the most interesting topic will be EPO’s upcoming enhancements and improvements to its “electronic mailbox” system. This is the system that permits the applicant to receive ISA/EP and IPEA/EP communications instantly rather than having to wait for such communications to arrive via postal mail. This includes things like the ISR/WO and an Invitation to Pay Additional Fees.
The USPTO has by now presented over 145 webinars, by now every two days or so, containing pants-on-fire lies about “the DOCX standard” and how safe it supposedly is to file US patent applications according to the USPTO’s DOCX initiative. As of the present time, USPTO’s stated plan is to start charging a $400 surcharge on June 30, 2023 for those filers who fail to use the DOCX initiative. As you can see here, many members of the patent filing community feel that the USPTO has not done a good job of communicating pros and cons for an applicant or practitioner when e-filing in DOCX format.
I presented two webinars recently about the professional liability risks of filing in DOCX. You might wonder whether the people who attended the webinar on April 18, 2023 think that you should attend the upcoming webinars? The answer is “yes”. You can see their evaluation questionnaire answers here.
Recently I presented two webinars (blog article) about the professional liability risks of e-filing using the USPTO’s DOCX e-filing system. (Recordings of the two webinars are now available.) The first-day webinar was for users of Microsoft Word, and the second-day webinar was for users of non-Microsoft word processors. After each webinar, an evaluation questionnaire was sent to the attendees. Here are some of the evaluation results from the April 18 webinar. Continue reading “How did attendees evaluate the April 18 DOCX webinar?”
Recently I presented two webinars (blog article) about the professional liability risks of e-filing using the USPTO’s DOCX e-filing system. The first-day webinar was for users of Microsoft Word, and the second-day webinar was for users of non-Microsoft word processors. During the webinars I did some attendee polling and here are the results.
Summary: For me the most striking polling result was that nearly all respondents felt that the USPTO has not done a good job of communicating pros and cons for a practitioner when e-filing in DOCX format. The answers were:
Yes – 1.5% and zero percent
No – 94% and 89%
Not sure – 5% and 11%
Now of course one might imagine some selection bias given that the respondents are people who chose to attend these webinars. And at the time of the polling the respondents had just heard half an hour of discussion of professional risks of the USPTO DOCX e-filing system. On the other hand, by now the USPTO has presented over one hundred forty-five webinars telling applicants and practitioners that DOCX filing is safe, and is better than PDF filing.
Details: Here are the detailed polling results.
Have you done any DOCX filings at the USPTO?
First-day attendees said this:
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Second-day attendees said this:
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What are your plans about doing DOCX filings in the future at the USPTO?
First-day attendees said this:
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Second-day attendees said this:
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Do you feel that the USPTO has done a good job of communicating pros and cons for a practitioner when e-filing in DOCX format?
First-day attendees said this:
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Second-day attendees said this:
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Have you experienced conversion problems with your DOCX filings?
First-day attendees said this:
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Second-day attendees said this:
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What I find most striking is the percentage of DOCX filers (21% and 13%) who report that they don’t know if there have been conversion problems because they don’t check for it.
What word processors are sometimes involved with your US patent applications? (check as many as apply)
Second-day attendees said this:
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And they also said this:
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So the word processor types that were reported as being involved with patent application drafting, in descending order, were:
78% – Microsoft Office 265
71% – local installation of Microsoft Word or Office
52% – Microsoft Word 2004 or older
29% – Wordperfect
24% – LaTex or Tex
24% – Office Online
20% – Google Docs
11% – Libre Office (and Open Office and Collabra Office)
