Monday, July 13, 2015

New Collaborative Search Pilot Program with the Japan Patent Office

From the Federal Register, Vol. 80, No. 132 (Friday, July 10, 2015) [Pages 39752-39759] [FR Doc No: 2015-16846]
SUMMARY: The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is initiating a joint Work Sharing Pilot Program with the Japan Patent Office (JPO) to study whether the exchange of search results between offices for corresponding counterpart applications improves patent quality and facilitates the examination of patent applications in both offices. In the pilot program, each office will conduct a prior artsearch for its corresponding counterpart application and exchange the search results with the other office before
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either office issues a communication concerning patentability to the applicant. As a result of this exchange of search results, the examiners in both offices may have a more comprehensive set of references before them when making their initial patentability determinations. Each office will accord special status to its counterpart application to first action. First Action Interview (FAI) pilot program procedures will be applied during the examination of the U.S. application and make the search results of record in the form of a Pre-Interview Communication.
DATES: Effective date: August 1, 2015.
Duration: Under the United States-Japan Collaborative Pilot (US-JP CSP) program, the USPTO and JPO will accept petitions to participate for two years from its effective date. During each year, the pilot program will be limited to 400 granted petitions, 200 granted petitions where USPTO performs the first search and JPO performs the second search, and 200 granted petitions where JPO performs the first search and USPTO performs the second search. The offices may extend the pilot program (with or without modification) for an additional amount oftime, if necessary. The offices reserve the right to terminate the pilot program at any time.
See the complete text at: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-07-10/html/2015-16846.htm

More information is also available from the Collaborative Search Pilot Program page at http://www.uspto.gov/patents-getting-started/international-protection/collaborative-search-pilot-program-csp or by emailing CSP@USPTO.GOV.