ContactNew USPTO Newsletter for Independent Inventors
Posted Tuesday, March 09, 2010 by Jim Ruttler.
The USPTO has launched a newsletter targeted towards independent inventors. The first issue covers topics such as patent reform, avoiding scams, advice on getting patents, meeting other inventors, and joining organizations. The newsletter may be accessed from http://www.uspto.gov/inventorseye/.
Responding to Restriction Requirements
Posted Monday, February 15, 2010 by Jim Ruttler.
Restriction requirements by examiners are common. Typically, examiners require election of a group of claims along with a separate requirement to elect species claims within that group. The easiest way to deal with restriction requirements is to comply with the examiner’s request and elect a group and species. However, this can result in having to pursue unelected claims in a separate divisional application as well as eliminating claims that may be important to define over art cited later during examination. Accordingly, one strategy may be to traverse the restriction requirement focusing on the fact that the examiner has not demonstrated why the additional search burden would be unreasonable. Because examiners often just state that there would be a burden without providing specific reasons to support such a statement, it is often possible to reverse the examiner’s position by pointing this out.
Compact Examination
Posted Monday, February 08, 2010 by Jim Ruttler.
Patent examiners have been initiating contact over the phone to suggest amendments or provide prior art in order to expedite examination. Traditionally, this has been very rare and examiners have relied solely on written rejections. The benefit of the phone calls is that it helps applicant’s understand right away where the issues are and allows for quick amendments to address the examiner’s concerns. Ultimately, this leads to more compact examination and faster allowance. Indeed, the Director of the Patne Office has recently confirmed my experiences in the following blog posting.
http://www.uspto.gov/blog/director/entry/thanks_patents_team_compact_prosecution
Green Technology Pilot Program
Posted Monday, January 25, 2010 by Jim Ruttler.
“The USPTO is implementing a pilot program to permit applications pertaining to “green technologies” (i.e., applications pertaining to environmental quality, energy conservation, development of renewable energy resources, or greenhouse gas emission reduction) to be advanced out of turn without meeting all of the current requirements of the accelerated examination program.” The Green Technology Pilot Program will run for 12 months from the effective date of December 8, 2009 or until they receive 3,000 petitions of previously filed new applications. Depending on the effectiveness of the program over the course of the year, the USPTO may choose to extend the pilot program. Until further notice, petitions to make special must be filed by December 8, 2010. No fee will be required for filing a petition under the Green Technology Pilot Program. To determine if a green invention qualifies for special status, please refer to the requirements set forth in the Federal Register attached below.
http://www.uspto.gov/patents/law/notices/74fr64666.pdf
USPTO Pilots Program to Accelerate the Patent Process for Small Entity Inventors
Posted Saturday, January 23, 2010 by Jim Ruttler.
The USPTO has announced intentions to launch a pilot program designed to give small entity inventors with two or more pending patent applications priority status if the applicant is willing to abandon an application that has yet to be examined. Applications are generally examined on a first file basis. However, this program will advance these special applications to the front of the examination queue. Director of the USPTO David Kappos said, “The program will accelerate protection for important innovations from independent inventors while reducing our unacceptable backlog. Getting these inventions to the market place quickly will also help stimulate the economy and create jobs”. The start date for the temporary pilot program will be announced in the next several weeks on the USPTO Web site.
http://www.uspto.gov/news/pr/2009/09_26.jsp
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