By Donald Zuhn --
Trilateral Offices Reaffirm Commitments
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently announced that the leaders of the USPTO, European Patent Office (EPO), and Japan Patent Office (JPO) -- or the Trilateral Offices -- reaffirmed their commitments at the 28th Annual Trilateral Conference in November. The conference, which was held at USPTO headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, focused on work sharing strategies for decreasing pendency and examination backlogs, improving patent quality, and leveraging IT solutions to simplify and speed up the processing of patent applications. Other topics discussed included IT collaboration and cooperation on patent classification. During the conference, the three offices agreed to invite the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) and the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) to participate in the ongoing Patent Cooperation Treaty-Patent Prosecution Highway (PCT-PPH) pilot; launch a pilot program for the USPTO's First Look Application Sharing (FLASH) initiative, which aims to provide USPTO search and examination results more quickly to the EPO and the JPO when the USPTO is the Office of first fiing (OFF); and continue to develop a Common Citation Document (CCD) to enable examiners and patent information users to see, in a single document, the prior art cited by each office for each patent family member (the latter program is expected to be released in November 2011).
Inventor Mailing Addresses Eliminated from Patents and Published Applications
On November 23, the USPTO published a notice in the Official Gazette (1360 OG 248) announcing that the Office will no longer print inventor addresses on the front page of unassigned patents and published applications. Because of the possibility that the address may be the inventor's home address, and recognizing concerns of privacy, the Office will no longer publish the inventor's address information on unassigned patents in the inventor information field or the correspondence address information on application publications (on both patents and published applications, however, the city and state of residence, or city and country if outside the U.S., will still be published). The Office notes that correspondence information regarding a patent or application publication can still be obtained via the public Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system.
The new procedure will be implemented beginning on February 23, 2011. Inquiries regarding the procedure should be directed to Mary C. Till, Legal Advisor, Office of Patent Legal Administration, Office of the Associate Commissioner for Patent Examination Policy, by telephone at (571) 272-7755 or (571) 272-7701, or by e-mail at [email protected].
USPTO to Launch Customer Satisfaction Survey
Earlier this month, the USPTO announced that it has initiated a new customer satisfaction survey, to be administered by ForeSee Results, to check with visitors to the Office's website to see what the Office is doing well and whether it can improve. According to the Customer Satisfaction Survey webpage on the USPTO website, a random selection of visitors will be presented with a pop-up survey invitation when visiting the USPTO website. The survey will collect data about site content, functionality, visual appeal, navigation, search, performance, overall satisfaction, and other aspects. Additional information regarding the survey can be obtained at the Survey webpage.
USPTO Launches Feedback Channel
Last month, the USPTO launched a the Feedback Channel, a webpage at the USPTO website that provides an area for visitors to learn about, comment on, and contribute ideas towards new programs, initiatives, and activities of the USPTO. The Office is currently seeking feedback regarding the USPTO Data Visualization Center, new count system (see "USPTO Proposes Changes to Count System"), Green Tech pilot program, and Project Exchange (see "USPTO Extends Deadline for Patent Application Exchange Program").
Updates to Director's Blog Available Via E-mail
The USPTO announced last month that updates to Director David Kappos' blog, Director's Forum, can now be obtained via e-mail. Those interested in receiving e-mail updates should navigate to the Director's blog and enter their e-mail address in the box provided on the left-hand side of the blog under the heading "Subscribe by email."
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