{4 minutes to read} In a recent case, the Federal Circuit upheld the USPTO’s interpretation of the Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) statute that limits the availability of PTA for time spent appealing an Examiner’s rejections only. The portion of the PTA statute at issue says: [I] the issue of an original patent is delayed due […]
{2 minutes to read} In December of last year, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to seek public feedback on a proposal to revise the rules of practice for issuing patents electronically. Under the current rule (37 CFR 1.315), the USPTO is required to deliver or […]
Per guidance issued by the U.S. Department of State, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has terminated engagement with officials from Russia’s agency in charge of intellectual property, the Federal Service for Intellectual Property (commonly known as Rospatent), and with the Eurasian Patent Organization. The USPTO has also terminated engagement with officials from […]
On January 6, 2022, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced a new pilot program: The Deferred Subject Matter Eligibility Response (DSMER). This pilot program is designed to evaluate how deferred applicant responses to subject matter eligibility (SME) rejections affect examination efficiency and patent quality as compared to traditional compact prosecution practice.
The rules for the Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) provide for a term deduction for “applicant delay” before the examination commences — if the application is not “ready for examination” within eight months of its filing date (or national stage commencement date). It is very important to be aware of this rule.
Due to COVID-19, the USPTO recently announced that it is possible to request a suspension of the requirement to file a certified copy of a foreign priority application by the time the issue fee is paid, if the foreign priority application is not available via a multilateral priority document exchange program. Here’s What You Need […]
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 a recent case, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. v. 10X Genomics Inc., the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court decision that the “tangentiality” exception to prosecution history estoppel can be used to show infringement under the doctrine of equivalents of an amended claim limitation. The facts of the case are simple.
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 […]