Posts Tagged: patent prosecution
New Year, New Models: How the Pandemic May Forever Change Practice at the USPTO
Last year brought unprecedented changes as to how the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) conducts business. Prior to the pandemic, the USPTO was already a …
US Inventor Backs SCOTUS Petition to Clarify Claim Construction Principles
Inventor advocacy group US Inventor has filed an amicus brief in support of a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court asking the justices to clarify “[w]…
Green, Yellow, Or Red: What Color Is Your Patent Examiner and Why Should You Care?
Examiners at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) can be categorized into three different “types,” namely, green, yellow and red Examiners. Knowing the type of …
Successful After Final Petitions Can Help Advance Prosecution (Part V)
While researching the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) treatment of final Office actions for previous articles (Part I, Part II, Part III and Part …
From Agent to Examiner and Back Again: Practical Lessons Learned from Inside the USPTO
As a Patent Agent, the work product coming out of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) seemed random to me. This article shares what I …
USPTO Report Puts Chinese Innovation Growth in Context
On January 13, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published a new report on the impact of patent and trademark filing trends in China. The report, …
Drawing Software Patent Drafting Guidance in 2021 from an Unlikely Source: the Federal Circuit
Since the Supreme Court’s Alice decision in 2014, inventors have faced extra hurdles trying to protect their software-related inventions with patents. A chief obstacle has been satisfying …
Eight Steps to Success in Navigating Subsequent Patent Applications in the United States
In Part I of this five-part series, the authors reviewed the law behind subsequent patent applications. In Part II, we reviewed the different types of subsequent applications. …
Prosecution and Litigation Implications of Subsequent Patent Applications (Part IV)
In Part I of this series, the authors reviewed the law behind subsequent patent applications. In Part II, we reviewed the different types of subsequent applications. Part …
How the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic Changed IP Practice
Greek philosopher Heraclitus is credited with saying “the only thing that is constant is change.” In 2020, life for everyone changed, including for those in the intellectual property (…
Solving the Patent Bar Gender Gap Without Lowering the Bar to Eligibility
“Qualified women are unnecessarily excluded from membership in the patent bar,” wrote Mary T. Hannon in a recent law review article seen by Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI), …
WIPO’s INSPIRE Offers a New Way to Select Databases for Patent Searches Involving Machine Translations
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) launched their INSPIRE (Index of Specialized Patent Information Reports) “database of databases” on November 4, 2020. It provides useful summaries of patent databases …
Understand Your Utility Patent Application Drawings
While it has been said that the how and why of patent application drawings are usually best left to the professionals, I do think it is important …
Maximize Your Patent Portfolio Using Helferich-Style Claims
Patent owners often obtain patents to protect products, as well as complementary products or use cases associated with those products. However, when selling or licensing the patented …
Thought Experiment: Is Our Patent System Ready for a Potential Future of Brain Interfacing?
Currently, brain recording and/or brain stimulation is used almost entirely for medical or research purposes. Invasive surgery is generally required to read neural signals with high …
