WIPO has launched a new web page called PCT Success Stories (click here). The idea is that you might have invented something and filed a PCT application on the invention, and the PCT application might later have helped the invention be a success. You could let the folks at WIPO know about it, and they could share the success story. There is for example a place on the web page where you can click and upload a photograph of your invention. Continue reading “Who has a PCT success story to share?”
Who would like to attend a complete PCT course?
Who would like to receive fifteen hours of training on the Patent Cooperation Treaty? In past years this might cost hundreds of dollars to buy a badge to attend an in-person two-day program. In past years you might have to spend money on airplane tickets and two or three nights of hotel rooms. In past years, you would have to go somewhere on an airplane and spend at least two nights in a hotel.
Guess what? The patent firm Schwegman Lundberg Woessner is doing everything to make it possible for you to attend fifteen consecutive webinars about the Patent Cooperation Treaty from the comfort of your home or office. You will not have to pay a penny to attend these webinars. The people of the Schwegman firm are making this available to you free of charge.
But these webinars are consecutive and cumulative. To make sense of webinar number 8, you need to have attended webinars 1 through 7. You need to block out time in your schedule for all fifteen webinars. They are free of charge, but you need to dedicate your time and energy to all fifteen of these webinars. To see the schedule, or to register, click here. I suggest you book these dates and times in your calendar.
You have a choice. You can pass up this unique opportunity, or you can commit to this unique opportunity.
I think you can guess where I am going with this. I suggest you follow through on this unique opportunity.
And by the way if you know anybody who is connected with the Schwegman firm, right now is the time to drop them a note and to say “thank you” to them for providing this opportunity for you.
Yet more innumeracy in the popular press
What’s wrong with this sentence in this January 14, 2022 news story?
The $180 million solar farm will produce enough energy to supply the equivalent of more than 36,000 average households in the state annually, and it will provide around $54 million to local landowners.
Just like sentences that I blogged about on December 4, 2021, this sentence has a mistake that jumps off the page. Actually, two mistakes that jump off the page. Continue reading “Yet more innumeracy in the popular press”
A new blog
Here is a new blog. See https://www.starlink-user.com/ .
Traps for the unwary in PCT small entity status
When I was first in practice, the only way to gain “small entity” status as a US patent filer was by filing a “small entity status form”. It was thus a pretty big deal in the year 2000 when the USPTO published a Federal Register notice (65 FR 54603, September 8, 2000) which pretty much eliminated the need for small entity status forms. Oversimplifying slightly, starting on November 7, 2000, a patent applicant in the USPTO was able to gain small entity status by the simple step of paying a government fee at the small entity rate. Except not! PCT filers sometimes find to their great disappointment that is is not really true that you can always gain gain small entity status by the simple step of paying a government fee at the small entity rate. Continue reading “Traps for the unwary in PCT small entity status”
What the rolling electrical blackouts in the mountains of Colorado on December 30th were all about
It turns out that the rolling electrical blackouts in the mountains of Colorado on December 30, which were a consequence of the devastating Marshall wildfire in Boulder Country, Colorado, were about the gas company avoiding having to relight pilot lights!
If there is anything that the gas company hates doing, it is having to send out workers to go from door to door to relight everybody’s pilot lights. Continue reading “What the rolling electrical blackouts in the mountains of Colorado on December 30th were all about”
L2 is crowded
I imagine that most readers have been closely following the launch of the Webb telescope and the successful deployment of its solar panels. As we all know, it is headed toward a particular place in space called the Earth-Sun Second Lagrange Point, shorthanded as L2. I was intrigued to learn that L2 is actually a crowded place. Continue reading “L2 is crowded”
All USPTO systems seem to be broken
It looks like all USPTO systems (TEAS, MyUSPTO, Patentcenter, EFS-Web, PAIR) are broken or very very sluggish. Listserv members are reporting timeouts, forced logouts, and lack of responsiveness from the USPTO systems.
As is so often the case during such crashes, there is no mention or acknowledgment of any of this on the USPTO system status page.
Upcoming federal holidays and the USPTO
Friday, December 24, 2021 will be a federal holiday in the District of Columbia. This means the USPTO will be closed that day. This means that any action that might be due at the USPTO on December 24 or December 25 or December 26 will be timely if accomplished by Monday, December 27, 2021.
Friday, December 31, 2021 will be a federal holiday in the District of Columbia. This means the USPTO will be closed that day. This means that any action that might be due at the USPTO on December 31 or January 1 or January 2 will be timely if accomplished by Monday, January 3, 2022.
A long-felt need in the TEAS system
The TEAS system is the system that trademark practitioners use to generate documents to be reviewed and e-signed by clients. A typical form to be reviewed and signed by a client might be a new trademark application or a six-year renewal or a ten-year renewal. There is a sort of design flaw in the TEAS system that represents a long-felt need for correction. This blog article describes the design flaw and describes two possible ways to address the design flaw. Continue reading “A long-felt need in the TEAS system”