Patent Public Advisory Committee Fee Setting Hearing

On Thursday, Sept. 6, the Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC) will hold a hearing to discuss the latest USPTO proposals to set or adjust patent related fees. The event will be held at the USPTO's main campus and will be webcast.  

Interested members of the public are invited to testify at the PPAC hearing about the proposed patent fee adjustments. Those wishing to present oral testimony at the hearing must submit a request in writing no later than Aug. 31.  

Requests to testify should indicate the following:  

1. The name of the person wishing to testify
2. The person’s contact information (telephone number and email address)
3. The organization(s) the person represents, if any
4. An indication of the amount of time needed for the testimony.  

Requests to testify must be submitted by email to Jennifer.Lo@uspto.gov. Speakers providing testimony at the hearing should submit a written copy of their testimony for inclusion in the record of the proceedings no later than Sept. 13. 

Those wishing to submit written comments on the fee proposal should email them to fee.setting@uspto.gov. The deadline for written comments is Sept. 13.

For more information, including how to attend, please visit our event page on the USPTO website.

USPTO systems status update

The USPTO’s systems continue to be operational. You can file your applications electronically through EFS-Web. For those who filed a patent application by paper between August 15 and August 23 because of the outage, the director will prescribe a procedure that will allow you to seek a refund of the paper filing fee. Once the details of this procedure are ready, we will post that information on our website.

Please view our Systems Status page for all updates on the situation.

Anti-Counterfeiting Video Contest

Counterfeit products hurt American businesses and consumers. We need you to help us combat fakes and educate consumers by creating a 30- to 60-second video showing the harmful effects of counterfeit products and the need to stop them at home and abroad.

Need some inspiration to get started? Read "The Basics of Counterfeit Goods" to learn about dangerous counterfeits and how to identify them.

For detailed information on the contest timeline, how to enter the contest, the prizes and judging criteria, please visit the USPTO website:
https://www.uspto.gov/trademark/trademark-updates-and-announcements/anti-counterfeiting-video-contest?utm_campaign=subscriptioncenter&utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_name=&utm_source=govdelivery&utm_term=

Update on USPTO systems status and availability

As you may already know from our previous updates, the USPTO has been performing emergency IT maintenance since Wednesday morning due to an issue with the agency’s PALM database, which affects many of our patent filing and payment systems. This issue stems from an internal systems failure and is not the result of any external causes.

I realize this disruption is inconvenient and frustrating to our customers. With that in mind I am in constant contact with the leadership of Patents and our Patent Trial and Appeal Board about how the systems outage is affecting their customers and the work of our employees.

I am also in constant contact with our acting chief information officer and his team about the around-the-clock work they are doing to restore the full functionality of these systems. At this time it appears that our emergency maintenance will continue into the weekend. Until the issue is resolved we will continue providing updates on the Systems Status and Availability page of our website at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. ET.

In the meantime, I want to urge those affected to use the alternative filing and payment methods available to our customers. Given the availability of the alternative methods, we do not plan to extend deadlines. We know you have questions about paper filing fees, and we are examining our options to see how we can address those concerns.

Again, I regret the inconvenience and frustration this has caused to our Patents and PTAB customers, and I want to assure you that we are doing our utmost to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

Andrei Iancu

Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO

Sign up for virtual training in September -- Clear Obviousness Rejections

Sign up to attend the Sept. 5 virtual training course entitled “Clear Obviousness Rejections: Important Lessons from Outdry v. Geox.” USPTO trainers will lead this course based on recent training delivered to patent examiners.

This course has limited capacity, and selection for attendance is on a first-come, first-served basis. The USPTO is applying for CLE credit in Virginia for this course.

Information on upcoming training courses is available on the Virtual Instructor Led Training webpage on the USPTO website.

Inventor Info Chat

On Aug. 16, join USPTO for the next Inventor Info Chat webinar to learn about Global Dossier and how it can benefit you. The webinar will be held from 11 a.m. to noon ET.

Global Dossier is a set of services aimed at modernizing the patent system and delivering benefits to all stakeholders using a single user interface. At the end of the event, you may send questions to our Global Dossier specialist at inventorinfochat@uspto.gov.

More information, including how to attend, is available on our Inventor Info Webinar event page on the USPTO website.