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Today’s big yellow banner on EFS-Web

click to enlarge

Sometimes when USPTO has something very important that it feels customers need to know, it shouts the message with a big yellow banner very prominently on the front page of EFS-Web.   

Just checking my calendar here … yes, today’s date is Monday, November 25, 2019.  The announcement about EFS-Web being unavailable during the wee hours of Friday, November 8 is now seventeen days out of date.

I wonder how long it will take after this blog post for someone at the USPTO to get that banner (which is dated Wednesday, November 6) aged off the system.

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November 28 is a holiday at the USPTO

Thursday, November 28, 2019 will be a federal holiday in the District of Columbia.  This means the USPTO will be closed.  This means that any action that would be due at the USPTO on November 28 will be timely if it is done by Friday, November 29, 2019.

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Be sure to participate in WIPO’s 2019 PCT User Survey

Every two years, WIPO surveys its users.  WIPO’s goal is to help determine which areas of the PCT services provided by the International Bureau could be improved.  If you would like to make sure that you receive this year’s questionnaire when WIPO has it ready, follow the instructions in this article from the November 2019 PCT Newsletter.

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DAS system now supports trademark applications

Readers are already familiar with WIPO’s Digital Access Service (“DAS”) which facilitates interchange of electronic certified copies (“ECC’s”) of utility patent applications, utility model applications, and design applications for purposes of priority claims.  But maybe some readers are not aware that the DAS system now supports interchange of ECC’s of trademark applications.  Continue reading “DAS system now supports trademark applications”

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Blog layout is back to normal

Hello dear readers.  By now you may have noticed the layout of the blog is back to normal.  It will be recalled that a couple of days ago I had migrated this blog from a shared server to a dedicated server.  As it turns out, one of the consequences of the migration was that the server defaults to a newer version of PHP.  To get my regular WordPress theme functioning again, what I had to do is force it that this blog is running on a slightly older version of PHP.  And indeed the theme functions again.

So now things are back to normal.

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When EUIPO will join DAS for designs

Well, folks, as I blogged here, the Offices that constitute the ID5 have one by one slowly made plans to become Depositing Offices and Accessing Offices in the DAS system.  And for some time now, the sole remaining ID5 Office that had not made any public statement about plans to join the DAS system was EUIPO.  The EUIPO has an Information Centre and every few months I make an inquiry to the Information Centre about this.  In February of 2019, this was EUIPO’s official answer:

Your question is being taken into consideration by the EUIPO. We’ll contact you as soon as we have a definitive answer.

Not having heard back, last week I made inquiry again at the the Information Centre.  And now I have received EUIPO’s official answer as to when it will join the DAS system for designs.  

Continue reading “When EUIPO will join DAS for designs”

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How to get a decent PDF of a US design patent that is in color or grayscale

As US patent practitioners know very well, the chief database used by USPTO personnel to carry out most patent prosecution (including design patent prosecution) is called IFW (image file wrapper).  Some nameless person at the USPTO made a decision back when IFW was being designed a decade ago, to make this a database in which no color or grayscale drawing would be displayed clearly.  Instead any color or grayscale drawing will get blurred, often to the point of unrecognizability.

Which then raises the question, how may a member of the public obtain a PDF copy of an issued US design patent that shows the actual color or grayscale drawings instead of the blurred non-color drawings of IFW? Continue reading “How to get a decent PDF of a US design patent that is in color or grayscale”

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Better to use an RCE or a continuation?

(Revised to include many excellent thoughts from readers.)

One of the nicest things about working with sophisticated patent firms in other countries is that they will ask questions about US practice that make me try to collect my thoughts about particular points of US practice.  I have a pending US case that has received an Advisory Action.  Instructing counsel, located in Europe, asked just now whether I thought it would be better to file an RCE or a continuation application in that case.  In this blog article I will try to list some of the factors that I think might nudge an applicant one way or the other on such a judgment call.

Continue reading “Better to use an RCE or a continuation?”