Patent Baristas

The quarterly customer partnership meeting of the biotechnology, chemical, and pharmaceutical (BCP) technology groups at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, provided an update on the training and development of Examiners.  Janet Gongola, Associate Solicitor for the Office of the Solicitor, presented a new training module for teaching patent examining corps about case law. According […]

On June 10, 2008, the USPTO published new Rules of Practice Before the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences in Ex Parte Appeals (73 Fed. Reg. 32937-32977, June 10, 2008; Final Rule). The new rules apply to all appeals in which an appeal brief is filed on or after December 10, 2008. The Board of […]

For both startups and well-established businesses, intellectual property is a core asset that drives both innovation and brand development. As a result, it is crucial to preemptively protective one’s resources from potential challenges by outside firms whose sole business practice is instigating litigation against operating companies. These “patent trolls” seek to buy up intellectual property […]

There are a number of patent search sites available today.  A new one is a semantic patent search — searching by meaning or interpretation of terms — called Setrue Semantic Patent Search Engine by Transformer. Setrue touts itself as an answer to the growing need of patent search market to a search engine with semantic […]

Noting that the KSR v. Teleflex decision had immediate effect of making patents more difficult to obtain — allowances of patent applications declined 43% in the first quarter of this year alone — Robert Yeager of the law firm K&L Gates LLP discusses these matters in a recently published “Legal Backgrounder” by the Washington Legal […]

As we saw in the Wyeth v. Dudas case, the US District Court for the District of Columbia overturned the USPTO’s interpretation of 35 USC § 154 (the statute that prescribes patent terms). Section 154 grants extensions of patent terms for certain kinds of PTO delay.  However, Congress says you can’t double-dip, i.e., to the […]

On September 30, 2008, the US District Court for the District of Columbia overturned the interpretation of 35 USC § 154 (the statute that prescribes patent terms) by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO).  See Wyeth v. Dudas, No. 07-1492 (D.D.C. September 30, 2008). Section 154(a)(2) establishes a term of 20 years from […]

The USPTO is developing a Continuing Education for Practitioners (“CEP”) system for on-line delivery of educational materials for patent practitioners.  The goal of this whole business — according to the USPTO — is to increase efficiency, reduce pendency, and improve quality in the patent process. For now, the USPTO trying out the system in a […]