April 6, 2020

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has made several temporary rules changes in response to the coronavirus outbreak. These rule changes include: Extension of patent and trademark related deadlines. On March 31, the USPTO announced extensions to the time…

January 25, 2019

Earlier this month, the United State Patent and Trademark Office released new guidance for its Examiners to help them better determine when an invention is too abstract to be patentable. This latest effort by the Patent Office brings more clarity…

November 16, 2017

The USPTO has issued a final rule, “Setting and Adjusting Patent Fees during Fiscal Year 2017” to set or adjust certain patent fees. Notably, the rule increases a large number of fees including filing fees, search fees, examination fees, and…

April 17, 2017

On April 20, 2017, the USPTO Office of Innovation Development will be presenting an Inventor Info Chat on “How to File a Patent Application.” The chat will be held online from 11 a.m. – noon. Topics included in this chat…

March 22, 2017

Women inventors and scientists have made lasting contributions to our nation’s history, but why is it that many people are unable to name one female inventor, but can easily recall male inventors such as Thomas Edison or Albert Einstein? Take…

March 15, 2017

Join the USPTO Office of Innovation Development (OID) on Thursday, March 16, 2017  from 11 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. ET for our Inventor Info Chat webinar, “How to Search and Why You Want To.” Performing a search can help prevent…

March 10, 2017

The Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is seeking nominations for the 2017 National Medal of Technology and Innovation. The medal is presented each year by the President of the United States and is this country’s…

March 7, 2017

On March 23, 2017, there will be a free program at the Indianapolis Public Library (Central Library) on the Gender Gap in Patents followed by an educational training session to learn the basics about patents and the trademarks and what…

August 8, 2016

There are many benefits of filing a patent application with a Request for First Action Interview Pilot Program. First, the program is open to all technology areas and filing dates as long as no substantive Office Actions have issued. Second,…

July 12, 2016

The USPTO recently established Patents 4 Patients, also known as the Cancer Immunotherapy Pilot Program, to speed up prosecution of cancer related patents. The goal of Patents 4 Patients is to reduce the time the USPTO takes to review patent…

May 20, 2016

The last update to the USPTO’s guidance to examiners on patent subject matter eligibility was issued in July of 2015. The USPTO recently provided the next iteration, which includes a new set of life science examples, a memorandum to the…

October 6, 2015

The After-Final Consideration Pilot 2.0 (AFCP 2.0) and Quick Path IDS (QPIDS) pilot have been extended to September 30, 2016. AFCP 2.0 authorizes additional time for examiners to search and/or consider responses after final rejection. The QPIDS pilot program eliminates…