By Christopher P. Singer --
Last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced that it is seeking participants for a Complex Work Units (CWU) Pilot Program that is scheduled to begin later this year. CWUs include applications containing chemical structure drawings, mathematical formulae, protein crystal data, and table data, which can add appreciable complexity (time) and cost to the examination and publication of these applications.
The CWU Pilot Program is designed and operated in an effort to:
- Investigate filing practice options for CWUs;
- Gather information about existing CWU formats and their use in the IP community;
- Evaluate rule changes to allow applicants to submit CWU files; and
- Determine other acceptable file types.
The pilot will allow participant applicants to submit original source files for CWUs through EFS-Web or on a CD, as a supplement to the usual application parts. The CWU source file submissions will not be considered when calculating the application size fee, which will reduce the cost of filing for pilot participants.
The USPTO is seeking participants in an effort to gather more information about CWUs from the intellectual property community. If you have any questions about this program or if you are interested in participating in CWU Pilot activities, the USPTO asks that you contact them by e-mail at: cwupilotsupport@uspto.gov.
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