Daily Archives: March 12, 2016

In Person Interview Capability with All Examiners Thomas Franklin Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP The ability to meet with your decision maker when seeking to procure or protect your property (i.e., a patent grant) is a cornerstone of procedural due process guaranteed by the Constitution. As the examining corps is ...

Designations: Roadblocks to Compact Prosecution Kate S. Gaudry Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP The patent office, applicants, and the public have a shared interest in promoting compact prosecution. Quickly and efficiently arriving at a final disposition (allowed or abandoned) would reduce the PTO’s backlog and allow applicants and the public ...

Proposal 1 Under Pillar 1: OPQA Review Richard B. Almon Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP Quality, as conceived today by the USPTO, can be assessed by the customers of the Office in different ways. Most customers agree that high quality involves ensuring that patent applications are quickly and efficiently examined ...

Regarding USPTO Proposal 2: Automated Pre-Examination Search Adam J. Gianola Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP We generally support the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) having a modern automated search tool to place the most relevant prior art before examiners at an early stage of examination. Such a tool may ...

Proposal: Training for Examiners on Compact Prosecution—Interview/Mediation Training Adam J. Gianola Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP To reduce prosecution time, the USPTO should offer additional training to examiners. Specifically, examiners should be offered advanced interview training and mediation training to properly prepare them to make the most effective use of ...

Pre-Search Interview Program Kate S. Gaudry Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP Compact prosecution—that is, reaching a final disposition as quickly as possible—while preserving quality of examination is a high priority for the USPTO and for applicants. Efficient prosecution requires that: • The examiner understand the invention. Accurate understanding allows the ...

Comment Regarding USPTO Proposal 3: Clarity of Record Matthew T. Kitces Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP An efficient and effective examination process is critical to enhancing patent quality in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or PTO). Clarity of the record is necessary to ensure everyone involved, including ...

Perfect Examination The U.S. Patent Office has never aspired to provide perfect examination. Under the old law, the swearing-back of a publication issued within the pre-filing one-year grace period left unresolved whether the party originating that reference had publicly used the invention, or even published it, prior to the beginning ...

On behalf of the United Inventors Association of America (“UIA”), the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic of the American University Washington College of Law submitted a comment to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) with respect to the proposed automated pre-examination search system (“APEx”) under Proposal 2 of ...

Charles Duan, Daniel Nazer, Ange Royall-Kahin, Vera Ranieri, and Julie P. Samuels In its February 5, 2015 Request for Comments, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office proposed to improve the quality of patents based on three “pillars”: excellence in work products, excellence in measuring quality, and excellence in customer service. ...