I just received a Notice of Allowance on August 3, 2009 for a design patent filed June 3, 2009. That is a pendency of 61 days. This eclipses my previous record of 71 days for a design patent.
The current case was filed electronically with a Petition to Make Special based on Age.
Really, there is no contest.
The IP Section of the Colorado Bar Association, in conjunction with Silicon Flatirons hosted a debate between representatives from the Obama and McCain campaigns today in Denver. Jonathan Alter, a columnist and editor for Newsweek moderated the discussion between attorneys Ed Reines and Ray Gifford representing the McCain campaign and professors Christopher Sprigman and Arti Rai representing the Obama campaign.
The latest rules from the US Patent and Trademark Office are quite sweeping. The new rules have several facets. On one hand, the PTO is limiting the number of continuation and continuation in part applications, as well as requests for continued examination (RCE). On the other hand, the PTO is limiting the number of claims you can have by forcing the applicant to file an Examination Support Document if you exceed the claims.
In today’s Federal Register, the USPTO has reopened the discussion on whether or not patent agents may prepare and file assignments for their clients.
The USPTO has long allowed patent agents to file patent assignments, considering the assignment “incident to the preparation and prosecution of patent applications
I have some cases that have been pending for years and private PAIR still says that first action in the case is 60 months away.
However, I recently had a first Office action come a mere 111 days after the date of filing. The case was filed in October of last year and I received a full Office action in January of this year. This is for a utility application in the mechanical arts, and I also filed a Petition to Make Special due to the inventor’s age. I received approval for the Petition to Make Special on one day and the Office action the next.
The USPTO has a new Accelerated Examination Program that promises an issued patent within 12 months. This program has a couple essential elements. The first element is that the applicant must perform a thorough search prior to applying for the patent. The second element is that the applicant can only have three independent claims.
There are many strategies and situations where slowing down the patent from issuing is an enormous benefit to the client. Personally, I take a very proactive approach to making the patent issue as late as possible where this is needed, such as filing a provisional application. I could not bear the thought of writing a sloppy patent application or intentionally filing claims are ambiguous or need a lot of work to clean up. I think it is reprehensible to intentionally and needlessly drag out prosecution by filing endless responses to Office actions, because it lines the pockets of the attorney without benefiting the client. I do think there are legitimate, low cost mechanisms that can extend the prosecution time to help the client get the most protection for the money spent.
Maybe things are changing at the US Patent Office.
I filed an original design patent on February 6 of this year and received a notice of allowance dated April 18. That is a mere pendency of 71 days. It will likely take the PTO longer to get the application through the publication process than the entire examination process. I thought that it took longer than that just to get through the Office of Initial Patent Examination.
The anonymous Just a Patent Examiner is back, or at least still has the blogging itch.
This blog was so rich in content, tackling some complex behind the curtains processes of the US Patent Office, that it is easy to see why the Anonymous Examiner was burned out from blogging. The posts were detailed, well explained, and long. That kind of pace cannot be kept up forever.
The anonymous Just a Patent Examiner blog has received its last posting.
