Monday, October 1, 2012

Law School Pro Bono Patent Applications

From the summary of the Oct. 1, 2012 Federal Register Notice 24113:
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is implementing a pilot program in which a law school clinic participating in the USPTO Law School Clinic Certification Pilot Program may file an application for a pro bono client of the law school clinic and that applicant's application may be advanced out of turn (accorded special status) for examination. Each school participating in the patent pilot program would be allotted up to two applications to be examined out of turn per semester. The total number of applications to be examined out of turn by law school clinics participating in the USPTO Law School Clinic Certification Pilot Program is limited to sixty-four per year.

For more information see the complete notice.

To see what law schools are participating, access the USPTO's Law School Clinic Certification Pilot page. Note that some schools like Houston's South Texas College of Law are specializing in trademarks only and will not be filing patents.