The USPTO is ending the unpopular “First Action Interview Pilot Program” effective January 15, 2021. According to the program, an applicant could have requested an interview before receiving a first office action on the merits. The examiner would have performed a search and would have provided the applicant with a short communication including potential rejections.
In the Federal Register Notice published August 3, 2020, the USPTO notified the final rule on fee changes. This final rule is effective from October 2, 2020, except for the surcharge for non-DOCX filings, which is effective from January 1, 2022. As detailed in the Table of Patent Fee Adjustments the final rules includes three […]
Pursuant to the CARES Act, and in response to the requests from stakeholders, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is extending the time period for petitioning for certain rights of priority or benefit in a patent application, and waiving the associated petition fee.
Due to the COVID-19 Emergency, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has announced extensions (read more here) to the time allowed to file certain patent- and trademark-related documents, as well as payment of certain required fees. These actions are an exercise of temporary authority provided to the USPTO by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, […]
In the Federal Register Notice of March 2, 2020 (linked here), the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published a guidance such that, effective immediately, it will be necessary to provide evidence that delays were unintentional for the following petitions:
In a recent case, Samsung Electronics America v. Prisua Engineering Corp., the Federal Circuit held that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) cannot invalidate patent claims as indefinite during an Inter Partes Review, making some patents more difficult to challenge.
The Safe Harbor Provision of 35 U.S.C. § 271(e)(1) states that: “It shall not be an act of infringement to make, use, offer to sell, or sell within the United States or import into the United States a patented invention (other than a new animal drug or veterinary biological product which is primarily manufactured using […]
In two recent cases, the Federal Circuits held that claim amendments at issue were “tangential” to the “equivalent” at issue, and upheld findings of infringement. The case details are below: Case #1: Ajinomoto Co. v. ITC The claim amendment at issue related to an encoding nucleotide sequence. The original claim language recited “a protein which […]
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has proposed to modify the fees associated with all aspects of patent filing and maintenance. The proposal includes an increase — by about 25% — of the petition fees and institution fees for all post-grant proceedings. Post-Grant Proceeding Fee Increases The total fees due will bring the […]