Posts Tagged: "pli"

This year individuals seeking registration before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) as patent attorneys and agents can take the exam at the USPTO on July 13 or July 14, 2010. The deadline for applying to take the exam in person at the USPTO is Friday, May 14, 2010. While the last time the Patent Office released Patent Bar Examination results is well over 3 years ago, over the preceding decade some 30,609 administrations of the exam, with 16,266 individuals passing the exam and becoming either patent attorneys or patent agents, which corresponds to an overall pass rate of 53.1%.

It is about that time of the year where our calendar really starts to heat up. This course, which happens every year during law school spring break, finds us in Chicago during St. Patrick’s Day festivities and the start of the NCAA College Basketball tournament. Once our Spring school tour is over then we will be back on the road teaching courses in New York City (May), Southern CA (June), Boston (July), Chicago (August), New York City (September) and San Francisco (November). We are indeed heading into our busy season!

PLI is offering scholarships for unemployed attorneys and they are also hosting Winning Strategies for Managing Your Career 2010 for the special price of $25. From time to time PLI also gives away ethics credits for free, and pro bono training. In reality, an announcement of scholarships and $25 programs hardly comes from the shameless commerce division, and for that reason I hope that you will consider helping spread the word.

Yes, a message from the shameless commerce division no doubt, but there are a handful of excellent PLI patent related programs coming up in February and March that deserve a mention.  After all, how often can one attend a program, get CLE credits and meet Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman?  Not all that often to be sure, but Judge Newman…

Over the last several months large law firms have opened Reexamination Practice Groups and even starting blogs dedicated solely or in part to exploring the issues presented by Reexamination.  And as I am writing, PLI is presently hosting day 1 of a two day Reexamination and Reissue program at its San Francisco headquarters. The program titled Reissue and Reexamination Strategies…

In this release, the authors (Kaye Scholer LLP’s Patent Group) update and expand Pharmaceutical and Biotech Patent Law with new discussion of many topics, including double patenting, inequitable conduct, product by process claims, attorneys fees under Hatch-Waxman and more. Table of Contents Table of Authorities Below is a synopsis of the significant updates provided for the Fall of 2009.

On Monday, November 9, 2009, the United States Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the much anticipated Bilski case, which could well decide once and for all whether business methods and software remain patentable in the United States. I will be in attendance at the oral argument, which will take place after a lunch recess.

Some of the most popular pages month after month on IPWatchdog.com are our Patent Bar information pages, and given that I teach for the PLI Patent Bar Review Course we get a lot of e-mail inquiries regarding the patent bar examination.  Pretty much every week we hear from individuals who are interested in becoming patent agents or patent attorneys, and…

Last week I was in New York City teaching the PLI Patent Bar Review Course along with John White.  The week was a good one, although the city was crazy with heads of state at the UN, terror worries about NY City hotels and President Clinton at the Sheraton across the street from PLI headquarters at the Clinton Global Initiative…

At the beginning of August 2009 the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued its decision in Exergen Corp. v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., et al., Case Nos. 2006-1491, 2007-1180 (Fed. Cir. 2009), a decision that changed the playing field with respect to charges of inequitable conduct in patent litigation. Essentially, the Federal Circuit decided that since inequitable…

I hardly keep it a secret that the Practising Law Institute is a sponsor of IPWatchdog.com, although not necessarily the views expressed herein, which are mine alone.  Occasionally I engage in some outright promotion activities, and stealing a good idea from the National Public Radio duo — Click & Clack — I sometimes refer to it as coming from the…

Patent Bar Review September 22-26, 2009, New York City In clear, concise, right-to-the-point language, this information-packed course leads you through the intricacies – and around the traps – of the Patent Bar Exam. You’ll get the hard facts, test-taking tips, sample questions and answers, and intense practice exams that mirror what you’re going to face when you sit down to…

Each year, the Federal Circuit Yearbook provides a concise, comprehensive review of every patent decision published by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit during the preceding year. The 2009 Federal Circuit Yearbook is now available, and includes all the information you need to catch up with what the Federal Circuit has been doing over the previous year. …

Last month the seminal PLI Treatise, Mechanics of Patent Claim Drafting, was updated with information on claim drafting tips and techniques post Bilski, and a few other juicy items.  Long time aficionados of the treatise will recall that this treatise was once upon a time called Landis on the Mechanics of Patent Claim Drafting, or simply the Landis Treatise.  Landis…

Gilles Bignan holds a PhD. in Chemistry, and soon will be a new patent agent.  I met Gilles in October 2008, when he attended the PLI patent bar review course in New York City.  When Gilles contacted me to let me know he had passed I asked him if he would be interested in doing an interview to discuss how…