Posts Tagged: patent examiners
Ignorance of the Law is No Excuse for Cost of the USPTO’s High ex parte Appeal Reversal Rates
As the old saying goes: Ignorance of the law is no excuse. So there seems to be no good reason that the Examining corps’ inability to apply …
Testing a Patent Claim against an Abstract Idea, in Response to 35 USC §101 Rejection
One promising approach is to argue that the claims are directed to a specific technological solution to a specific technological problem, as has been successful in the …
How to Create Patent Rights
Intellectual property is distinguished from “real property” because the property itself exists in our heads and needs to be “created” through a process of description and examination. …
Judge Michel tells Congress it isn’t helpful to talk about quality, patents are either valid or invalid
“I think at the end of the day, patents are either valid or invalid as a legal instrument and therefore it’s not very helpful to talk …
Review of USPTO should start at the top, not with examiners
In an article published on April 23, 2017, Gene Quinn wrote about President Trump’s workforce reduction plan and his proposal for what it should mean for the United …
Ex Parte Appeal Oral Hearings: Making Your Case Right Before Decision Time
This data set shows that Oral Hearings are rarely conducted. (See Figure 1.) Across the 72,443 appeals, only 459 (0.63%) appeals had an Oral Hearing... As shown in Figure 4, Oral Hearings …
Patent Office workforce reduction should focus on eliminating ‘dead weight’ patent examiners
In pursuing President Trump's federal workforce reduction plan the USPTO must target those patent examiners who have long been refusing to do their jobs. Losing these patent …
Patent Prosecution 101: Understanding Patent Examiner Rejections
Unlike certain rejections one faces in life, a rejection from a patent examiner is never the end of the story, and definitely not final – even when the …
Examining Examiners: The Top and Bottom 10 of TC 2800
From all cases filed in the last 10 years, we filtered for all final dispositions in all of 2015 and 2016. Taking this data, we examine TC-2800 at three levels …
Michelle Lee’s views on patent quality out of touch with reality facing patent applicants
In the piece, Lee tries her best to assure readers that positive developments have been made at the USPTO in recent years, but at multiple points she …
Could or should the USPTO adopt the EPO problem-and-solution approach for assessing obviousness?
There is a plausible case that the US law on obviousness is indeed compatible with the EPO problem-and-solution approach. It could even be said that the steps …
An Examiner’s Tips For Speedier Patent Prosecution
Interactions between patent examiners and patent practitioners are often tense. At worst, these interactions can be an exercise in restraint with both parties thinly veiling their disdain …
House oversight subcommittee grills USPTO on patent examiner time and attendance abuse
“[Time and attendance abuse] may not be widespread, but the data established that claiming hours not worked is a problem at the [USPTO],” said David Smith, Acting …
Patently Surreal: The Obama Strategic Plan on IP Enforcement
It is almost impossible to believe this report is the work product of the Obama Administration. The section on patents, which begins on page 134, reads like a …
A STEPP In the Right Direction: A review of the PTO Stakeholder Training on Examination and Practice and Procedure (STEPP)
Hands on exercises were part of the program. In reading and understanding a patent application, materials were provided how examiners learn to break down an application in …
