Introduction Most actions during prosecution of a patent application in the USPTO are eventually subject to quasi-judicial review by an appeal to the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences. The classic example of an action that is subject to this type of review is an art (§102 and/or §103) rejection of a claim. Other actions,…
Claiming The Benefit Of Foreign Priority And Examples Of How To Do It
This post discusses a less common but nonetheless important point that my earlier post on this subject did not – the mechanics of how to claim priority to a foreign patent document, along with a few examples. Generally, the approach for claiming the benefit of foreign priority is similar to claiming domestic priority. There are…
Claiming The Benefit Of Priority, Examples Of How To Do It, And How To Correct A Failure To Make A Claim
This post discusses some of the mechanics involved in securing a right of priority to an earlier filed application, provides some examples of acceptable claims of priority, and ways to correct a failure to make the required claim. BACKGROUND When certain conditions are satisfied, a patent application is entitled to the benefit of the…
A Few More Useful Sections Of The Manual Of Patent Examining Procedure
In my earlier post in this series, I discussed a few sections of the MPEP that I have found to be useful in some specific circumstances. This post discusses a few more. Some Help For When Patentability Arguments Are Ignored We have all received Office actions in which the Office seems to have ignored patentability…
USPTO Joint Labor-Management Task Force Proposes Significant Changes To Examiner Count System
The USPTO has unveiled a series of proposals that would bring significant change to the examiner “count system” – the methodology for determining the time a patent examiner has to complete a patent examination and how much credit is given for each stage of an examination. The proposals were developed by a task force comprised…