Bluesky: @oppedahl.com
I realized that for quite a long time, I had sort of wondered how the tire pressure gauges work that have a thing that pops out. Clicking around on the Internet, I have now learned what the common name is for that kind of tire pressure gauge. It is called a “pencil gauge”. And I have learned how they work. Continue reading “How pencil tire pressure gauges work”
(Update: there is news about how to get the elusive “+Request PCT Link” button — see blog article.)
(Update: EPO people have provided a summary page about how to do this ISA/EP and IPEA/EP stuff, that is linked here and that I have archived here.)
PCT applicants who are located outside of Europe, and who pick ISA/EP as their ISA, have for some years now faced a frustrating situation: ISA/EP only sends out its communications by postal mail, not electronically. A couple of days ago I attended a webinar presented by four nice people at the EPO, in which they explained how their new system will work that will permit applicants to receive International Search Reports and Written Opinions (and other ISA communications) electronically instead of on paper. This article briefly summarizes my notes from that webinar. Continue reading “EPO’s new system for PCT applicants to receive ISR/WOs electronically”
(Update: the webinar took place and I have written an article about it.)
Well, folks, maybe you knew about this imminent webinar a long time ago, but somehow I only learned about it today. You know how you hate it that EPO only sends ISR/WOs out by postal mail? Not electronically? Well, I gather EPO intends to drag itself into the previous decade and plans to provide some electronic way to receive your ISR/WOs.
Yes, an extremely important webinar will take place about 24 hours from now. Yes, I am giving you a mere 24 hours’ advance notice on this one. Sorry about that. Continue reading “Sign up for tomorrow’s EPO webinar on PCT”
Intellectual property is all around us, in so many ways. One of my favorite films, made in 1949, has counterfeit penicillin as its MacGuffin. Who will be the first reader to name the film and, perhaps, to post a comment about it? Continue reading “A movie about counterfeit penicillin”
In the community of US practitioners who regularly enter the US national phase from a PCT application, it is a well-known problem that it takes an unreasonably long time for the USPTO to mail out a Filing Receipt. There is, I am sorry to say, a dirty little secret way to get prompt filing receipt in such cases. Normally I do not make use of it, but just now I plan to use it in one of my cases. Continue reading “Getting a prompt Filing Receipt in a 371 case?”
Dear readers, the important thing to remember is that you heard it here first! On January 1, 2023, the State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania will become trendy, modern and up-to-date. That is the date that the Lithuanian patent office will become a member of the DAS system for electronic interchange of priority documents. Continue reading “The State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania becomes trendy, modern and up-to-date”
Pretty much the only periodical that I have made time to read diligently in recent years is the Economist. A recent article in the Economist introduced me to ikigai, which is yet another of many Japanese words that Westerners have appropriated and onto which much meaning has been grafted beyond the original Japanese meaning. Continue reading “Thinking about ikigai”
Keep in mind that most locations in the US will turn off daylight saving time today (November 6, 2022), but today is not the day that Switzerland will turn off daylight saving time. (Switzerland turned off DST a week ago.)
Those who are filing documents at the International Bureau — documents that need a same-day filing date — should check to make sure they know what time it is in Switzerland as of today.
The main point here is that for a US filer, everything is now “back to normal”. Whatever time zone offset a US filer is accustomed to between his or her time zone and Geneva, that offset is back to normal.
ePCT will tell you what time it is in Switzerland.
Yesterday I posted a blog article asking readers to let me know which ePCT topics they want me to teach sooner than other topics. I listed fifteen topics. I provided a very long and tedious questionnaire by which readers could indicate their personal rankings of the fifteen topics, as “urgent” or “average urgency” or “not urgent”. Fifty-four readers responded, for which I am quite grateful. Here you can see what they said: Continue reading “Which ePCT topics you want me to teach sooner than others!”
Update! You can see the results here.
Hello dear readers. How time flies! It was a mere ¾ of a year ago that I announced (blog article) my plans to teach fifteen webinars on ePCT topics (as distinguished from PCT topics). Now I really plan to get moving on these webinars. I should mention that these webinars will be free of charge, thanks to sponsorship from WIPO. Now what I ask is that readers please tell me which ePCT topics they want me to teach sooner than others. Continue reading “Which ePCT topics do you want me to teach sooner than others?”