Good morning and welcome to the 6th Annual Patent Law Institute live blog! We will be live blogging from the majority of the Institute’s panels, which will also be accompanied by live tweeting (@plipatentlaw, #PatentLawInstitute). This morning begins with the keynote address from Robert L. Stoll. Robert has had a long career with the USPTO, serving as Commissioner for Patents, Dean of Training and Education, and director of the Office of Enforcement for the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Robert is currently at Drinker, Biddle, & Reath LLP. Here are the highlights from Robert’s update on the PTO:
Fiscal Year Summary: PTO’s goals are to reduce pendency – First Office Action pendency on average of 10 months by 2014, and total pendency on average of 20 months by 2015. There has been an increase in filings by approximately 5.2% over the fiscal year of 2010, meanwhile the backlog was reduced to 669,625.
AIA: First to file won’t come into effect until March 16, 2013. The fee setting authority hasn’t been set but will be set soon. Meat and potatoes of the act: changes to inter partes reexamination, supplemental examination, post grant review, and inter partes review.
Extremely critical provisions that will change the way patent prosecution will occur: supplemental examination, inter partes review, and post grant review. You will need a road map from here on out focusing on there provisions.
Efforts to Move Applications More Quickly: transition to a first-to-file patent system while maintaining a 1yr grace period for inventor disclosures; track 1 implementation with final disposition on average within 12 months of prioritized examination request grant; harmonization of US patent laws with IP offices throughout the world.
Initiative Update: There has been a focus on COPA (clearing the oldest patent application) for the sake of efficiency. There is a high variability in workload volume as compared to resources in a few technology areas. The solution has been to analyze old case backlog distribution, and re-balancing workloads by sharing resources both within and across Technology Centers.
Up next: Recent Cases in Patent Law
Tags: Patent Law Institute 2012, PLI, PTO, Robert Stoll
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