Patent Law Practice Center

David Kappos Shares USPTO’s Game Plan for 2012

As Director of the USPTO and Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, David Kappos is a busy, busy individual. Just look at the year the USPTO had in 2011: they issued more utility patents last year than they ever have in any year prior, they reduced the backlog of unexamined patent applications to below 665,000, and expanded the Peer-to-Patent (P2P) pilot program to strengthen the patent examination process. And don’t forget about the enactment of the America Invents Act!

Considering the success of 2011, it is of no surprise that Kappos is excited about the prospects of what’s to come for the USPTO in 2012. On Director’s Forum: David Kappos’ Public Blog, Kappos lays out what his game plan is for the agency in the new year. Below are the patent driven highlights: (more…)

Top 5 Patent Law Blog Posts of the Week

Today we continue our weekly installment highlighting the best of the patent blogosphere from the past week. If there are any patent blogs you think should be highlighted by our Top 5, please comment on this post and we’ll check them out!

1) IPWatchdog: Court Slams Frivolous & Vexatious Litigation with $4.7 MM in Fees – This post discusses the recent developments within the Federal Circuit in regards to no longer tolerating abusive patent litigation tactics with the case MarcTec, LLC v. Johnson & Johnson.

2) Foss Patents: Thanks to Apple’s flawed litigation strategy, HTC has nothing to fear until March 2013 (in the US) – This post outlines what Florian Mueller considers to be tactical missteps by Apple’s litigation team when dealing with Motorola, Samsung, Nokia, and HTC.

3) Patently-O: 2011 Patent Grants: A New Record – This post highlights the banner year the USPTO had in 2011 as more patents were granted in 2011 than any other year in history. Check out the post for a detailed graph demonstrating the amount of US Utility Patents granted over the last ten years. (more…)

Google’s Patent Portfolio: As Impressive as Cars that Can Drive Themselves

Google’s patent portfolio has been in the news a lot lately, and not in reference to the plethora of patent litigation Google has found itself in in recent years. Google expanded its patent portfolio in 2011 by acquiring more than 2,000 of IBM’s patents and added another by having its patent application for a self-driving car awarded by the USPTO. Not sure which is more impressive? Let’s spell out the recent acquisitions: (more…)

New Year, New USPTO Series Code

The USPTO uses series codes to identify when a patent application’s filing date was. It is a two digit code representing a period of time. The series code precedes the rest of the six digit patent application serial number. These numbers are assigned chronologically as they are received at the USPTO.

Any patent applications that will be submitted in 2012 will belong in a new series code number, Series Code 13. Series Code 13 was implemented at the end of 2010, but the first application to be published with the series code 13 didn’t occur until May 2011. What was the patent application for? A light-emitting apparatus:

Can’t you tell from the image above? If not, check out the application here.

USPTO’s New Rules and You

The Patent Law Practice Center wants to be sure that you are ready for the USPTO’s new rules of practice for ex parte appeals before the Board of Patent Appeals & Interferences that become effective on January 23, 2012. PLI’s “USPTO New Rules of Practice for Ex Parte Appeals: Change and Simplification for 2012″ is a one hour briefing on January 9, 2012 that will focus on the new petition practice to toll Reply Briefing deadlines, simplification of brief formatting and required appendices, the new default practices and assumptions, guidelines for identifying “new rejections”, any new jurisdictional timing, and the elimination of examiner responsibilities.

The America Invents Act (AIA) introduces entirely new options, e.g., Post-Grant Review, Inter Partes Review (formerly inter partes patent reexamination) Derivation, a special post-grant review for “business method” patents and Supplemental Examination. Going forward, it is anticipated that the USPTO will become an even more prominent battleground for patent disputes. PLI’s “Post-Grant USPTO Proceedings 2012 – The New Patent Litigation” (February 3, 2012) is taught by a faculty of judges, preeminent lawyers, and industry leaders who have earned national reputations in patent litigation and in post-grant proceedings at the USPTO. The program focuses on the role of post-grant USPTO proceedings as component of a litigation strategy, including pre-trial and post-trial options.  The relative advantages and disadvantages of the various proceedings are explained from both the perspective of the Patentee and Third Party.