This Week in Washington IP: Think Like a USPTO Examiner, Prepping Arguments for AIA Trials and a Look at the Changing Cyber Threat Landscape

This week in Washington IP events, both houses of Congress remain quiet during regularly scheduled work periods. However, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will host several workshops including a series of events geared towards patent attorneys to aid their skills in communicating with patent examiners or presenting oral arguments in AIA trials. Elsewhere, the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) hosts events exploring ways to secure critical supply chains for the United States in batteries and semiconductors, the Heritage Foundation speaks with Retired Admiral Michael Rogers, Former National Security Agency (NSA) Director, on the changing landscape of cyber threats, and the Cato Institute focuses on state efforts to amend medical licensing laws to pave the way for the future of telemedicine.

Tuesday, September 7 

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office 

Agents and Attorneys: Learn to Think Like a Patent Examiner with STEPP’s Four-Day Course

At 9:00 AM on Tuesday, online video webinar.

This Tuesday marks the first day in the USPTO’s four-day Stakeholder Training on Examination Practice and Procedure (STEPP) course for agents and attorneys practicing at the agency, especially those from Europe who may need a better understanding of U.S. patent law as it pertains to patent examination. Subjects covered in the four-day course include steps an examiner takes upon reading a patent application for the first time, patentability requirements under Sections 101, 102, 103 and 112, as well as discussion on how examiners map prior art to drafted claims.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office 

Trademark Basics Boot Camp, Module 6: Responding to an Office Action

At 2:00 PM on Tuesday, online video webinar.

This workshop, the sixth in the USPTO’s eight-part Trademark Basics Boot Camp series, is designed to teach small business owners and entrepreneurs the basics of how to respond to office actions on their trademark applications. Subjects covered include deadlines for responses to office actions, how to file responses and tips for submitting successful responses.

Wednesday, September 8

Center for Strategic & International Studies

Supply Chain Resilience: Opportunities for U.S.-Korea Cooperation

At 9:00 AM on Wednesday, online video webinar.

This June, the Biden Administration released key findings from the 100-day reviews of critical supply chains that were launched under an executive order issued during President Biden’s first days in office. Among the findings were the identification of critical products, including batteries and semiconductors, for which the U.S. must ensure that supply chains remain secure for national security and economic purposes. This event, hosted by the CSIS Economics Program, will discuss opportunities that the U.S. has for developing robust supply chains for batteries and semiconductors with South Korea. Keynote remarks at this event will be provided by Don Graves, Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Commerce. Following those remarks will be a discussion with a panel including Denise Gray, President, LG Energy Solution Michigan Inc. Tech Center; John Neuffer, President and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association; and Naomi Wilson, Vice President of Policy, Asia, Information Technology Industry Council.

Cato Institute

Telehealth’s Moment: How States Are Leading the Way

At 12:00 PM on Wednesday, online video webinar

While telehealth platforms and technologies have existed now for a couple of decades, the social distancing measures put in place during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic threw a new spotlight on these technologies as critical infrastructure for ensuring that patients with chronic health conditions could stay in touch with medical professionals providing treatment. Although some states allowed telehealth providers to operate across state borders as a temporary emergency measure, the friction between state licensing laws and the borderless nature of telehealth platforms available over the Internet is becoming more clear. Some states, like Arizona and Florida, have worked on legislation to provide telehealth availability across state borders on a more permanent basis. This event will feature a discussion with a panel including Christina Corieri, Senior Policy Advisor to Arizona Governor Doug Ducey; Sal Nuzzo, Vice President of Policy and Director, Center for Economic Prosperity, James Madison Institute; Kyle Zebley, Vice President for Public Policy, American Telemedicine Association; and Jeffrey A. Singer, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office 

LEAP Webinar: Preparing for Your AIA Argument

 At 12:00 PM on Wednesday, online video webinar.

This workshop, offered by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) Legal Experience and Advancement Program (LEAP), will inform practitioners on what to expect during oral hearing proceedings for America Invents Act (AIA) trials conducted by the PTAB. Speakers at this event will include Janet Gongola, Vice Chief Judge for Strategy, PTAB; Gabrielle Higgins, Desmarais LLP; and Joshua Goldberg, Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP.

Thursday, September 9

Information Technology & Innovation Foundation

Packaging Postal Reform for the E-Commerce Era

At 11:00 AM on Thursday, online video webinar.

Thanks in large part to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the total volume of packages shipped by the U.S. Postal Service increased by 25 percent during 2020. As first-class and marketing mail options become less important to the USPS’s bottom line, policymakers have questioned how to keep the mail delivery agency viable given the new normal of larger shipments driven by e-commerce purchases. This event, co-hosted by ITIF and Citizens Against Government Waste, will feature a discussion with a panel including Edward Hudgins, Founder, Human Achievement Alliance; Shannon Penberthy, Vice President, Federal Government Affairs, CVS Health; James Sauber, Chief of Staff, National Association of Letter Carriers; Thomas Schatz, President, Citizens Against Government Waste; and moderated by Robert D. Atkinson, President, ITIF.

The Heritage Foundation 

Admiral Michael Rogers on Confronting the Challenging Cyber Landscape

At 12:00 PM on Thursday, online video webinar.

Major cyber attacks perpetrated this year on entities like the Colonial Pipeline oil pipeline system, meat processing giant JBS and others have made it clear just how susceptible U.S. supply chains, and American consumers, are to suffering major negative impacts from supply chain disruptions. While these attacks have increased the fervor of federal lawmakers to find effective solutions to preventing such attacks, those solutions require effective partnerships between private firms and government entities that have been difficult to forge. This event will feature a discussion on how the U.S. can achieve cybersecurity dominance and prevent future hacks with Admiral Michael S. Rogers, USN (Ret.), Former Director, National Security Agency and Central Security Service, and Former Commander, U.S. Cyber Command; and Dustin Carmack, Research Fellow in Technology Policy, The Heritage Foundation.

The Aspen Institute 

Building a More Inclusive Cyber Future

At 12:00 PM on Thursday, online video webinar.

Diversity, equity and inclusion efforts have been on the rise in many professional career paths and government policies in recent years, and the U.S. patent system has seen its own push towards increasing both gender and racial diversity as of late. This event, hosted by the Aspen Tech Policy Hub and Aspen Digital, will explore diversity in the context of the cybersecurity industry and feature a discussion on the findings of a new report by the Aspen Institute on that subject. The keynote speaker at this event will be Representative Lauren Underwood (D-IL). Following Rep. Underwood’s address will be a discussion with a panel including Lodrina Cherne, Principal Security Advocate at Cybereason, and Fellow, Aspen Tech Policy Hub; Ron Ford, Cybersecurity Advisor, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency; Karyn McMullen Harker, Global HR Business Partner, Cybersecurity, Accenture; and Camille Stewart, Co-Founder, #ShareTheMicInCyber, and Global Head of Product Security Strategy, Google.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

The Path to a Patent, Part VII: How to File a Patent Application Using EFS-Web

At 1:00 PM on Thursday, online video webinar.

This workshop is designed to inform patent attorneys and prospective patent applicants about how to file and manage patent applications through the USPTO’s Electronic Filing System-Web (EFS-Web) and the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) systems. The workshop will also include an overview of helpful resources available through the Inventor’s Assistance Center (IAC) and the Patent Electronics Business Center (EBC).

Friday, September 10

Center for Strategic & International Studies

Energize U.S.-India: Opportunities to Further Clean Energy Ties

At 9:00 AM on Friday, online video webinar.

This Friday, the governments of the United States and India will formally begin their Strategic Clean Energy Partnership, part of a larger agenda on clean energy partnership that the two countries announced in April of this year. This event will also feature the findings of a report by energy consulting firm EY and Indian commerce agency FICCI on how accelerating the clean energy industry within India can speed up the economy’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. This event will feature a discussion with a panel including Andrew Light, Assistant Secretary for International Affairs, U.S. Department of Energy; Somesh Kumar, Partner and Leader for Power and Utilities, EY India; Dinesh Dayanand Jagdale, Joint Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India; Nikos Tsafos, Interim Director and Senior Fellow, Energy Security and Climate Change Program, CSIS; and Kartikaya Singh, Senior Associate (Non-Resident), Energy Security and Climate Change Program and Wadhwani Chair in U.S.-India Policy Studies, CSIS.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

LEAP AIA Trials Mock Argument

At 1:00 PM on Friday, online video webinar.

This Friday, the PTAB’s LEAP legal experience program, in partnership with the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), will hold mock trial arguments for AIA trials as part of LEAP’s educational programming. Participants in these mock arguments will present to a panel of PTAB administrative patent judges (APJs) who will provide feedback on arguments presented in the mock trial.

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