Patent Baristas

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published final rules of practice implementing the first-inventor-to-file provision of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA). Prior to the passage of the AIA, the USPTO was the only national patent office using a “first-to-invent” system. The AIA authorizes derivation proceedings before the USPTO, which will ensure that a person [...]

The USPTO is looking for feedback from the public to help reduce their backlog of patent applications associated with a Request for Continued Examination (RCE).  There is currently a backlog of over 103,000 applications related to RCEs. You can see the past two year trend at the USPTO Dashboard. An RCE is a request by [...]

The day after the Supreme Court issued its  decision in Mayo v. Prometheus, the USPTO issued a letter to the Patent Examining Corps that provides preliminary guidance to examiners and promises that more detailed guidance is forthcoming. MEMORANDUM DATE:            March 21, 2012 TO:                 Patent Examining Corps FROM:           Andrew H. Hirshfeld, Associate Commissioner [...]

The USPTO is seeking nominations for the 2012 Medal of Technology and Innovation (NMTI), the nation’s highest honor for technological achievement, bestowed by the President of the United States on America’s leading innovators. A nomination form and detailed information about submission requirements can be downloaded here. All completed nominations must be submitted to the USPTO [...]

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published the amended rules governing practice before the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (Board or BPAI) in ex parte patent appeals. The USPTO amends the rules to: Remove several of the briefing requirements for an appeal brief, provide for the Board to take jurisdiction over the [...]

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office made a change in policy based on the recent decision of In re Tanaka. Basically, the PTO has said that in a reissue application, the addition of claims that are narrower in scope than the existing claims, without any narrowing of the existing patent claims, may be the basis [...]

A Practitioner from a Leading U.S. Law Firm sent in a screen capture of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s login screen for Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. I find some interest that the site shows a bit of an international flavor in the use of Arabic characters.  The full image is here:  PAIR [...]

At an event co-sponsored by the US Patent and Trademark Office, The Biotechnology Industry Organization and the Biojudiciary Project,  David J. Kappos, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office gave a speech on “From Chakrabarty to Today. Kappos remarked that there is no question that [...]