By Donald Zuhn —

Last month, in a notice published in the Federal Register, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it would be holding a roundtable discussion regarding deferred examination on February 12th (see "USPTO Schedules Roundtable Discussion on Deferred Examination").  Today, the Patent Office provided additional details regarding the roundtable on its website.

The roundtable discussion, which is open to the public, will be held from 9 AM to 1 PM (Eastern time) in the Madison North Auditorium at the USPTO Headquarters, 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, VA.  A webcast of the roundtable can be accessed at https://uspto.connectsolutions.com/thm021209/ (webcast attendees should log on using their first and last names).  An audiocast is also available at 1-800-988-9629 (pass-code: 5163535).

The Patent Office has released the following agenda for the roundtable:

• 9:00 – 9:05 AM — Opening remarks by Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Acting Director of the USPTO John Doll
• 9:05 – 9:15 AM — Introductions by roundtable moderator and participants
• 9:15 – 11:45 AM — Moderated discussion among roundtable participants
• 9:15 – 9:45 AM — Advantages and disadvantages of deferred examination
• 9:45 – 10:15 AM — Impact of deferred examination on applicants/the public/competitors
• 10:15 – 10:45 AM — Impact of deferred examination on the USPTO’s pendency/workload
• 10:45 – 11:15 AM — Global impacts of deferred examination/Experiences with deferred examination in other countries
• 11:15 – 11:45 AM — How deferred examination might work in the United States
• 11:45 AM – 12:00 PM — Break
• 12:00 – 12:50 PM — Questions and comments from the audience
• 12:50 – 1:00 PM — Closing remarks by moderator and Acting Director Doll

In today's announcement, the Patent Office also released a list of roundtable participants:

• Arti Rai – Elvin R. Latty Professor of Law, Duke University School of Law
• John Thomas – Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
• Jeffrey Kushan – Partner, Sidley Austin LLP
• Stephen Kunin – Partner, Oblon, Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Newstadt
• Q. Todd Dickinson – Executive Director, American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA)
• Hans Sauer – Associate General Counsel, Intellectual Property, Biotechnology Industry Assocation (BIO)
• Gordon Arnold – American Bar Association (ABA)
• Ron Reardon – President, National Association of Patent Practitioners (NAPP)
• Herb Wamsley – Executive Director, Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO)
• Brad Huther – U.S. Chamber of Commerce
• Glen Katopish – Independent Inventor
• Carl Gulbrandsen – Managing Director, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), representing university technology transfer
• Manny Schecter – Associate General Counsel, Intellectual Property Law, IBM
• Ken Patel – Associate General Counsel of Intellectual Properties Organization, Procter & Gamble
• Dick Wilder – Associate General Counsel, Microsoft
• Robert Budens – President, Patent Office Professional Association (POPA)
• Nancy Linck – Of Counsel, Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck, former solicitor for the USPTO
• Henry Hadad – Vice President & Associate General Counsel, Intellectual Property, Schering-Plough Co.
• Nicholas Godici – Executive Director, Birch, Stewart, Kolasch & Birch, LLP
• Peter Thurlow – New York IP Law Association (NYIPLA)
• Ron Katznelson – President, Bi-Level Technologies
• John Doll – Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property & Acting Director, USPTO
• Margaret Focarino – Acting Commissioner for Patents, USPTO

The roundtable will be moderated by John Whealan – Associate Dean for Intellectual Property Law Studies, The George Washington University Law School.