The following was written by Gene Quinn, of IPWatchdog and Practice Center Contributor.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office will soon unveil a pilot program that is aimed at trying to provide inventors with some additional options with respect to moving from a filed provisional patent application to a nonprovisional patent application. USPTO Director David Kappos wrote about this in the November edition of Inventors Eye, see Providing Inventors More Time and Options. In some circles this pilot program has at times been characterized as providing for an extension of a provisional patent application to allow it to remain pending for twenty-four (24) months. That is not technically an accurate way to articulate what the new pilot program will do, and for those who might want to avail themselves of the soon to be announced pilot program it is worth getting a handle on some of the finer details of the proposal. The effect could look like an extension of a provisional patent application, but there are special steps that must be followed.
The Kappos Administration at the Patent Office has been criticized in some circles for even pursuing this path because it is too complicated, but such criticism smacks of a healthy dose of condescension if you ask me. It seems far too paternalistic to believe that inventors and small businesses are not savvy enough to figure out what they want and what they need. After all, the idea of attempting to extend the effective life of a provisional patent application was proposed to Director Kappos by an inventor. Life is complicated. Life comes with choices. Some people are lazy and don’t care to inform themselves. We ought not dumb down life and/or the law to the lowest common denominator. Rather, what needs to be done is to articulate the choices with clarity and precision such that those who are diligently engaged can determine if they might find one or another path more useful. This is about making educated choices and giving more flexibility, how is that bad?
Of course, there is justifiable concern that the seedy underbelly of the invention market might rise up and mischaracterize a pilot program that allows you to “extend” your provisional patent, thereby further preying upon unsuspecting inventors who erroneously place trust where none is deserved. But the fact that charlatans might be able to dupe those who don’t do any independent investigation of their own is no justification for forestalling a good idea, and for many the soon to be announced provisional patent pilot program will be a very good idea.
To read Gene Quinn’s full article click here.
Tags: David Kappos, independent inventors, inventors eye, magic patent fairy, nonprovisional patent applications, Patent Office, patent rules, provisional patent applications, USPTO
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