Europe's Unitary Patent

On Dec. 10, 2012 the European Parliament approved two draft regulations concerning a unitary patent for its members. Unitary patents will be an additional option to the existing national patents and classical European patents and will offer coverage in the 25 participating European states. Unitary patents may be filed starting either January 1, 2014 or "the date of entry into force of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court, whichever is the later."

More information is available from the European Patent Office's (EPO) unitary patent page.

Request for Continued Examination (RCE) Feedback

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is working to reduce the backlog of over 90,000 patent applications that have not been examined since the filing of a Request for Continued Examination (RCE). To reduce the need to file a RCE, the USPTO introduced two pilot programs - the Quick Path Information Disclose Statement (QPIDS) and the After Final Consideration Pilot (AFCP). Now the USPTO would like the public's input to understand the factors involved in an inventor's decision to file an RCE. It will use that information to design new programs to reduce both RCE filings and the backlog. Feedback can be provided through: roundtables, IdeaScale, and email. See the RCE Outreach page for more information about each method.

Information is also available through a Dec. 6 , 2012 Federal Register Comment Request.