Patent Law Practice Center

Getting to a patent as fast as possible

Patent attorney Russ Krajec is the CEO and founder of BlueIron, a patent-financing company. Krajec is an angel investor, a registered patent attorney, a former Chief Operating Officer of a venture-backed startup company, and an inventor on more than 30 US patents and applications. Russ started BlueIron because he was frustrated with what he perceives to be a conflict of interest between clients, particularly startups, and patent attorneys.

Every patent attorney knows the problems. We know what the client really should be doing, but the client either doesn’t want to pay for the proper solutions, or cannot afford the proper representation. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just do what is in the best interest of building the best, strongest patent portfolio possible without having to justify every dime to the client? Enter BlueIron. If you are a startup company and you have patentable technology, rather than calling an angel, you might want to consider calling Krajec, who offers free legal work in exchange for the rights to the patent which he then licenses back to the inventors. The inventors also retain an option to purchase the patent back at any time. The model is much cheaper than angel or VC financing.

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US and Brazil enter into Patent Prosecution Highway agreement

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and Brazil’s National Institute for Industrial Property (INPI) have agreed to establish a Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot program. The United States Patent Office likes PPH applications because they take significantly less time to prosecute, on average, than non-PPH applications. This is as a result of being able to re-use information, such as previous search and examination results, between and among the USPTO and partner patent offices.

PPH agreements are cooperative initiatives that streamline the patent examination process by promoting expeditious, less costly, and more effective patent protection. The USPTO and INPI plan to launch the two-year pilot program on January 11, 2016.

“This agreement strengthens the economic relationship between the United States and Brazil and further highlights the commitment both countries have made to provide a high quality and efficient intellectual property system that will make it easier for innovators of all sizes to do business in a global economy,” said Michelle Lee, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO.

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Trilateral Patent Offices Step Closer on Patent Harmonization

Written by Gene Quinn, of IPWatchdog and Practice Center Contributor.

In view of the growing need for innovator companies to obtain patent protection in multiple Patent Office around the world simultaneously, leaders of the most heavily used patent regimes continue to seek ways to streamline the process and engage in work sharing. In an effort to continue to move forward in the absence of true global cooperation, the Trilateral Offices at their 29th Trilateral Conference considered proposals to reduce the burden for patent applicants by increasing cooperation on procedures and improving the exchange of procedural information.

Meeting for their Annual Trilateral Conference near Paris, France, the heads of the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) – collectively known as the Trilateral Offices – pushed forward earlier this week with efforts to further harmonize global patent systems. The Trilateral Offices agreed on steps to enhance efficiency in patent-related procedures.

Click here for Gene Quinn’s full article on IPWatchdog.

Life in the Fast Lane – Use of the Patent Prosecution Highway

Michael Davitz, Partner at Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider and  Practice Center Contributor, recently sent in this article he wrote with colleague’s Drew Schulte and Jia Li discussing the Patent Prosecution Highway and the value that can be achieved for those practitioners willing to explore the new program.

In July of 2006, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) established a trial program with the Japanese Patent Office, where an applicant with an allowed claim in one office could fast track the examination of a corresponding application filed in the other patent office.  This program paved the way for what would become known as the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH).[1] Today, the PPH includes patent offices in many of the world’s largest economies and is growing.[2] Despite the USPTO’s estimate of a 94% overall allowance rate for PPH applications as compared to 44% for non-PPH cases when the United States is the Office of Second Filing,[3] practitioners have continued to be wary of using the new program, especially when it comes to leveraging entire patent portfolios.[4]

In part, the hesitation to embrace the PPH reflects a legitimate fear of comparatively untested methods when it comes to patent prosecution. Although patent practitioners deal every day with cutting-edge technology, which innovates constantly, they are often reluctant to try new approaches as patent prosecution is fraught with dangerous liability.[5] However, for those practitioners willing to explore this new avenue, the PPH offers potentially great rewards in terms of easier and faster prosecutions which can provide value-added leverage for a client’s patent portfolios. (more…)