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…

October 1, 2015

The USPTO has announced the deployment of the Version 2.1 of the Next Generation Trademark Manual of Identification and Classification of Goods and Services (IDM-NG) available at tmidm.uspto.gov. The IDM-NG search system and results display have been updated to include…

September 11, 2015

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has launched a new website—the USPTO Patents Petitions Timeline. The new website provides the average pendency and success rates (over the past 12 months) for each type of petition that can be filed…

June 15, 2015

This overview presentation discusses the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and provides some practical guidance about international patent prosecution using both the Paris Convention as well as the PCT process. It also provides a general overview of both the Paris Convention…

March 10, 2015

The USPTO is holding a Patent Quality Summit on March 25-26 at their headquarters in Alexandria, VA. The purpose of the summit is to discuss specific proposals with the goal of improving patent quality.  A Federal Register Notice of February…

February 18, 2015

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) recently announced that the United States has deposited the official instruments needed to ratify the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs (the “Hague System”). The…

December 31, 2014

Beginning on January 17, 2015 the fee for electronically filing a trademark application will drop $50 to $225 for an application with confirms to an existing classification (TEAS Plus) and $275 for all other applications. The USPTO just issued a…

December 26, 2014

The USPTO has publicly launched a beta version of its new website. The site is part of the agency’s rollout of “next Generation” technologies that will improve the experience of doing business with the USPTO. The USPTO’s new site aims…