Madison Building, USPTO Headquarters

Draft plan sets priorities to strengthen the USPTO, drive innovation and support economic growth

Washington – Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) David Kappos announced today that the USPTO’s draft Strategic Plan for fiscal years (FY) 2010-2015 is posted for public review and comment on the USPTO Web site at www.uspto.gov.

The draft 2010-2015 Strategic Plan sets out the USPTO’s mission-focused strategic goals: to optimize patent quality and timeliness; to optimize trademark quality and timeliness; and to provide global and domestic leadership to improve intellectual property (IP) policy, protection, and enforcement worldwide.

David Kappos interviewed by Joff Wild, editor of IAM magazine

USPTO Director David Kappos made one of his rare excursions outside of the US at the end of June when he flew to Munich to take part in the IP Business Congress, organised by IAM – the magazine which I edit. Speaking to 450 delegates, many of them heads of IP at large corporations and SMEs, Kappos was clear that he has a major task in getting the USPTO fit for purpose and able to meet the myriad challenges it faces. I also discussed many of these with him in an interview we recorded at the congress.

Although he has only been in his job for a little under a year, Kappos is a well-known figure in Europe. He was a frequent traveller across the Atlantic during his time as head of IP at IBM and as a result has met many senior figures at the European Patent Office, as well as corporate IP big hitters. And you can say the same about Asia too. As a result, when it comes to the international aspects of his job, there has been no big learning curve. Kappos was familiar with the major issues already. It will come as no surprise to any reader of this blog to know that these are focused on closer co-operation between patent offices in order to improve quality, lower costs and reduce the huge patent backlog.

Public and Private Sector Leaders Meet to Discuss Copyright in the Internet Economy

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke gathered with leaders from the public and private sectors to discuss the relationship between copyright policy, creativity and innovation in the Internet economy as part of a symposium co-hosted by the Commerce Department’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.

Changes will mark the first updates to standards in nearly 25 years

WASHINGTON – Management at the United States Patent and Trademark Office has been working with representatives of the patent examiners union, the Patent Office Professional Association (POPA), to better align the performance standards for patent examiners with the USPTO’s goals for increasing quality in patent examination and reducing the backlog of pending patent applications, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO David Kappos announced today. If adopted, the joint task force’s changes would be the first major revision to the patent examiners’ performance appraisal plan (PAP) since 1986.

Last week the United States Patent and Trademark Office announced that the Office entered into a no-cost, two-year agreement with Google to make bulk electronic patent and trademark public data available to the public in bulk form.   Under this agreement, the USPTO is providing Google with existing bulk, electronic files, which Google will host without modification for the public free of charge.   This bulk data can be accessed at http://www.google.com/googlebooks/uspto.html.

According to the USPTO, it does not currently have the technical capability to provide this public information in a bulk machine readable format that is desired by the intellectual property (IP) community.  This arrangement is to serve as a bridge as the USPTO develops an acquisition strategy which will allow the USPTO to enter into a contract with a contractor to retrieve and distribute USPTO patent and trademark bulk public data.  The contractor will be capable of acquiring this bulk data and providing it to the public.

Earlier today the official notice promised regarding the introduction of a Three-Track patent processing initiative was published in the Federal Register. It was not exactly what I expected, and perhaps I jumped the gun a bit, believing that what was to be published would be proposed rules. Instead, what was published was a detailed call for comments and the announcement of a public meeting to discuss the proposals sketched out. The public meeting will take place at the United States Patent and Trademark Office on July 20, 2010.

Reading the Federal Register Notice made me realize just how much things have changed over the last 18 months at the USPTO. During the Bush Administration the Patent Office largely treated patent professionals and applicants as the enemy; the ones really to blame for all the problems facing the Patent Office and the patent system. Odd coming from a Republican Administration, but that was indeed what we lived with. Now, however, the Patent Office seems to realize that they do not have a monopoly on good ideas, listen, act on what good ideas they like and seek further input from the community in order to refine and build out the ideas and initiatives they seek to implement. The flip in policy and approach is almost surreal.

Kappos speaking at Center for American Progress, 6/2/2010, hinted of a major rulemaking announcement.

UPDATE: For discussion of the Federal Register Notice see USPTO Announces New Examination Rules, Seeks Comment on 33 Questions.

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The United States Patent and Trademark Office is seeking public comment on a major new patent examination initiative that would provide applicants greater control over the speed with which their applications are examined and promote greater efficiency in the patent examination process.  This newly proposed Three-Track program aims to provide applicants with the ability to go faster or slower through the patent process, which will in turn hopefully reduce the pendency of those patent applications that are the most time sensitive.

There will likely be those who oppose this Three-Track proposal, but as far as I can tell what is being proposed is a mechanism to speed your application up or slow your application down. Up until I attended the BIO International Conference in early May 2010 I couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to slow the process down, but there are indeed many who would prefer a slower patent process. I most often work in the software, computer and Internet technology areas where the patent process is extremely slow and getting fast patents is extremely important to attract investors and gain traction. In the biotech, pharma and University sectors, however, there is a great preference for a slower process because basic research is being undertaken and that might not ultimately prove fruitful.

Kappos delivers speech at Center for American Progress, 6/2/2010

Earlier today the Center for American Progress hosted a speech given by David Kappos, Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and the Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  The speech was open to the public, RSVP was required and space was limited.  A light lunch was served.  I was lucky enough to be present as a member of the Press, and unlike the United States Supreme Court which requires members of the press to sit in partial view seats behind the tall pillars with an extremely large diameter, the Center for American Progress reserved front row seating for the press.  Not that such front row treatment is required, but it sure does make taking pictures far more easy, but I digress.

A packed room of at least 200 individuals, including the newly retired Chief Judge Paul Michel, former USPTO Director Q. Todd Dickinson, former USPTO Director Bruce Lehman and others listened to Kappos give an impassioned speech about how innovation can create jobs, how the Patent Office is unfortunately continuing to hold jobs hostage due to a staggering backlog of pending patent applications and how American economic security depends upon development of a comprehensive national IP strategy.  This is something near and dear to my own heart, as readers of IPWatchdog.com know I have been beating that drum since before Kappos was appointed (for example see this, this, this and that; and more recently here and here, among many others).  But can Director Kappos persuade Members of Congress and others in the Executive Branch of the truth we all know?