Posts Tagged: "small entity"

Unintended Consequences of the New USPTO Micro Entity Fees

Ever since March 19, 2013, I have been feeling slightly uncomfortable asking one question to some of my new clients. What is that question you ask? It is: “What was your household income in the preceding calendar year?” So, why am I asking a question that makes this Registered Patent Attorney sound more like a Certified Public Accountant? Answer: The AIA.

USPTO Implements Micro-Entity Discount Effective March 2013

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is revising the rules of practice in patent cases to implement the micro entity provision of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA). Certain patent fees set or adjusted under the fee setting authority in the AIA will be reduced by seventy-five percent for micro entities. The USPTO is revising the rules of practice to set out the procedures pertaining to claiming micro entity status, paying patent fees as a micro entity, notification of loss of micro entity status, and correction of payments of patent fees paid erroneously in the micro entity amount.

Outside The Box Innovations v. Travel Caddy: Is a Misstatement of Small Entity Status Per Se Material to Patentability?*

In partially dissenting, Judge Newman’s beef with per curiam panel opinion on the small entity status issue was in “declin[ing] to correct the district court’s ruling that improper payment of the small entity fee is material to patentability.” Newman’s view that filing of an incorrect small entity statement doesn’t render it per se “material” is based on the 1928 Supreme Court case of Corona Cord Tire Co. v. Dovan Chemical Corp. which Newman said had made immaterial to patentability “an affidavit that was not the basis of the patent grant.” Put differently, Newman characterized Therasense as reiterating that the doctrine of inequitable conduct “should only be applied in instances where the patentee’s misconduct resulted in the unfair benefit of receiving an unwarranted claim.” In other words, Newman viewed a potentially incorrect assertion of small entity status as being “immaterial to the patent’s issuance.” But she found the per curiam panel’s opinion as being equivocal “on materiality and intent based on error in small entity status” and thus “simply add[ing] uncertainty when such is unwarranted.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Seeks Comment on Proposed Fee Schedule as Mandated by America Invents Act

The proposed fees are at least 22 percent lower for a routine patent process—i.e., filing, search, examination, publication, and issue fees—than the current fee schedule. The current proposed fees also are lower than those originally proposed by the USPTO in February. The USPTO is opening a 60-day comment period in which the public can provide input on the latest proposal. Following the comment period, the Office will prepare the final fee-setting rule, which would go into effect no less than 45 days after it is published in the Federal Register.

PTO Proposes Changes to Implement Micro Entity Patent Fees

The amend to the rules of practice in patent cases is for the purpose of implementing the micro entity provision of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA). If an applicant qualifies as a micro entity, then the applicant is eligible to pay reduced patent fees once the USPTO exercises its fee setting authority under the AIA. The fee setting provision in the AIA sets the micro entity discount at 75% of the fees set or adjusted for filing, searching, examining, issuing, appealing, and maintaining patent applications and patents.

USPTO Updates Fee Schedule Following Enactment of Leahy-Smith America Invents Act

There have been a number of inquiries from the public regarding the fees due when payments are made by postal mail just prior to the effective date of the 15 percent surcharge (September 26, 2011). The fee due is the fee in effect on the date the document is timely filed. At this time the USPTO may not offer the micro entity discount (75%) on any fees. As provided for in the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (Public Law 112-29) these fees will be adjusted under the fee setting authority provided for in Section 10 of the AIA.