The following post is written by Mark Dighton, PLI’s Director of Law School Relations and Administrative Director of the Patent Bar Review.
If all goes as planned, the Patent Office will start on Tuesday, January 31st, to test on the PTO’s Registration Exam (sometimes called “the patent bar exam”) some of the first changes to US patent law resulting from the America Invents Act, as well as some changes to the appeals rules that had been in the works even before Patent Reform. The new appeals rules did not even become effective until January 23, 2012. Testing them only eight days later demonstrates clearly that the Patent Office is good to their word that they expect the Exam to more accurately reflect current practice going forward. (For many years, the Exam was YEARS behind current practice. Seemingly almost an afterthought.)
The changes from the America Invents Act already subject to testing are the new rules that permit prioritized examination of patent applications (Track I) and revise the standard for granting inter partes reexamination requests.
The major changes to US patent law resulting from America Invents (post-grant review and the new “first to file” system) will not be testable until Fall of 2012 and Spring of 2013, respectively. These are MUCH more substantial changes to the Exam, and may well make it substantially more difficult. That’s why, as the provider of the nation’s leading Patent Bar Review, PLI recommends that everyone who’s thinking of taking the Exam should get it done by this summer.
And of course PLI will continue to provide the latest information through its highly regarded programs and publications on the impact of America Invents on US patent practice. But we’ll do that when your score on this already difficult exam isn’t riding on that new information.
Specifically, the new materials being tested are:
(1) the rules governing prioritized examination,
(2) the rules governing the revised standard for granting inter partes reexamination; and
(3) the new rules governing ex parte patent appeals.
Generally, the source materials for the Exam are identified here.
For more information on PLI’s Patent Bar Review, contact Mark Dighton at mdighton@pli.edu.
Tags: America Invents Act, patent bar, Patent Bar Review, PLI, USPTO
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