Today the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced that Shira Perlmutter, the USPTO’s Chief Policy Officer and Director for International Affairs, has been selected by the Librarian of Congress to serve as the 14th U.S. Register of Copyrights.
“The Library of Congress has made an outstanding choice,” said Andrei Iancu, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. “I and the entire USPTO team congratulate Shira and wish her much success in her new and critically important role. As one of the nation’s most preeminent copyright experts, Shira is extremely well qualified to lead the Copyright Office. I look forward to working with her and continuing the USPTO’s longstanding and close collaboration with the Copyright Office.”
Perlmutter has more than 20 years of experience working on copyright and other intellectual property (IP) issues, in a variety of public and private sector positions. Before joining the USPTO in January 2012, she served as executive vice president for global legal policy at the International Federation of Phonographic Industry and before that as vice president and associate general counsel for IP policy at Time Warner, Inc. She is a co-author of a leading casebook on International Intellectual Property Law and Policy and has published numerous articles on copyright issues. During her tenure at the USPTO, she led the work of the Office of Policy and International Affairs in contributing to domestic and international IP policy development, represented the United States in negotiations at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), oversaw the USPTO’s economic research, international education and IP attaché programs, and managed the USPTO’s work with the United States Trade Representative on matters involving IP and trade.
“Shira’s work at the USPTO over the past eight years made a tangible and positive difference for America’s creators and innovators,” said Iancu. “In the coming days we will appoint an acting director to lead our Office of Policy and International Affairs, and we will share a timeline for our efforts to hire a permanent replacement.”
Patent Center beta is available for all users. It is a new tool for electronic filing and management of patent applications in a single unified interface.
Join us for training on how to use various features in Patent Center, including filing in DOCX. Several members of the eCommerce Modernization (eMod) team will share information and conduct a demo, followed by a question-and-answer session.
Register to attend one of these upcoming webinars:
You will receive instructions for joining the webinar via email prior to the session you registered for.
We encourage you to use Patent Center beta and provide feedback to help shape the future of our systems. Please visit the eMod IdeaScale to provide feedback. More information about Patent Center beta is available on the Patent Center information page of the USPTO website. Future training opportunities will be posted to that page.
For assistance, questions, or feedback, please contact eMod@uspto.gov.
As of September 30, Art Unit 2131 will be dissolved and thus will no longer be participating in the Access to Relevant Prior Art (RPA) Initiative. Art Unit 2133 will be added to the program and will accept qualifying applications on October 1.
The RPA Initiative is an effort underway to increase patent examination quality and efficiency through the development of an automated tool for USPTO examiners, which, in its first phase, imports relevant prior art into pending U.S. patent applications from their immediate parent application as early as possible.
An applicant whose application is included in the RPA initiative receives a Notice of Imported Citations informing them of their application’s inclusion and listing the citations from the immediate parent application that have been imported into the application.
More information is available on the Access to Relevant Prior Art webpage of the USPTO website. If you have any questions, please contact PriorArtAccess@uspto.gov.
On September 14, the USPTO launched the National Council for Expanding American Innovation (NCEAI), comprised of representatives from industry, academia, and government. Here’s what others are saying:
“Qualcomm Inc., General Motors Co., and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. are
among the companies working with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to
bolster diversity in innovation as part of the National Council for
Expanding American Innovation.”
Bloomberg Law, September 14, 2020
“Led by Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, the council … brings together
heavy hitters from government, industry, academia, intellectual
property associations, nonprofits, small businesses and venture capital
firms ... ”
“ … a major initiative to ‘build a more diverse and inclusive innovation
ecosystem by encouraging participation demographically, geographically,
and economically.’”
“The new Council will address the challenges the United States faces in
maintaining its position as the world's most innovative nation.”
Wilbur L. Ross, Secretary of Commerce
" … the work done here today is just the beginning, and we must be
committed to seeing this effort through to its completion. Most
importantly, we must all be in this together: industry, academia, and
government."
Andrei Iancu, Under Secretary of Commerce
for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO
"It is a time of intense global competition in every sector of science,
engineering, and innovation. It is also a time of opportunity for our
own nation—we have the potential to harness innovation to drive national
prosperity and well-being."
Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan
Director, National Science Foundation
A list of remarks by members of the National Council for Expanding American Innovation can be found here. For additional information on the National Council, including a list of council members, read the press release on the USPTO website.
Notices of Allowance mailed between September 9 and September 15 may have specified an incorrect issue fee amount: the issue fee due under the new fee rule that goes into effect October 2, 2020, rather than the issue fee due under the current rule. The USPTO will be mailing a corrected Notice of Allowance in all affected cases.
If you have already paid the issue fee for a notice mailed in this timeframe, the USPTO will contact you with further guidance. If you have any questions, please contact the resources listed below.
Notices of Allowance for international design applications were not affected by this error.
Please see the USPTO Systems Status and Availability page for more detailed information and updates.
For questions regarding issue fee calculation, please contact the Application Assistance Unit at 888-786-0101 or HelpAAU@uspto.gov.
For assistance with PAIR or EFS-Web, please contact the Patent Electronic Business Center at 1-866-217-9197 or ebc@uspto.gov.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today announced a collaborative deferred-fee provisional patent application pilot program for inventions that combat COVID-19.
The USPTO recognizes that its mission to issue high-quality patents to inventors goes hand-in-hand with dissemination of important scientific information to the public to promote further innovation. This information flow is now more important than ever in view of the urgent challenges posed by the COVID-19 outbreak. Under the pilot program, applicants may defer payment of the provisional application filing fee until the filing of a corresponding, non-provisional application. To foster dissemination and collaboration, they must agree that the technical subject matter disclosed in their provisional applications will be available to the public on the USPTO’s website. By making their disclosures available, applicants can contribute to the public in the fight against COVID-19 while protecting their patent rights.
To qualify for the program, the subject matter disclosed in the provisional application must concern a product or process related to COVID-19, and such product or process must require Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for COVID-19 use, whether such approval has been obtained, is pending, or will be sought prior to marketing the subject matter for COVID-19.
The program is scheduled to accept applications for 12 months beginning on September 17, 2020. For more information on the deferred-fee provisional patent application pilot program, please read the full notice.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today launched a major initiative aimed at expanding invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship in the United States.
The new National Council for Expanding American Innovation (NCEAI), comprised of representatives from industry, academia, and government, will help guide the USPTO in developing a comprehensive national strategy to build a more diverse and inclusive innovation ecosystem by encouraging participation demographically, geographically, and economically.
“It is critical that industry, academia, and government work together to strengthen our culture of innovation by encouraging the participation of young people from diverse backgrounds,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “Through the National Council for Expanding American Innovation, we plan to develop a national strategy for promoting and increasing the participation of underrepresented groups as inventor-patentees, entrepreneurs, and innovation leaders.”
Secretary Ross will serve as the Chairman of the NCEAI and is joined in his efforts by Vice-Chair Andrei Iancu, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO.
“America’s economic prosperity and technological leadership depend on a strong and inclusive innovation ecosystem,” said Iancu. “That is why it is so important for us to encourage participation in the patent system so that all Americans are inspired to invent, to protect their inventions, to build thriving businesses, and to succeed.”
The NCEAI was born out of a recommendation in the USPTO’s 2018 SUCCESS Act study and congressional report transmitted to Congress in December 2019. The study assessed the participation of women, minorities, and veterans as inventors named on U.S. granted patents. The report provided recommendations to increase those groups’ participation in innovation. One was to create a council to promote inclusiveness in innovation and increase the development and participation of underrepresented groups as inventors and entrepreneurs.
NCEAI is comprised of leaders in corporate, academic, non-profit, professional, and government organizations. Together they have joined in the effort to encourage and support all future American innovators.
The USPTO invites the public to comment on the National Council and provide it with ideas, programs, and policies that will boost innovation in America. Comments should be sent by email to NCEAI@uspto.gov. For additional information on the National Council, including a list of council members, see the USPTO’s NCEAI webpage.
Register to attend this USPTO-Department of Justice (DOJ) joint program on how intellectual property drives innovation in the life science sector and the potentially positive effects that collaborations and partnerships can bring. The program will pay specific attention to the antitrust implications of different cooperation and licensing strategies.
This free, virtual event will include 10 sessions throughout two afternoons. Panelists and speakers include leading figures from industry, government agencies, prominent research labs, the nonprofit sector, academia, and the broader legal and economic community. The first day will feature a fireside chat between Andrei Iancu, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and Makan Delrahim, Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice. The second day will feature a keynote address by Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, former Director of the National Institutes of Health.
For more information and to register, visit the event page on the USPTO website.
What’s happening
Owners of U.S. trademark applications and registrations are receiving fraudulent emails that appear to originate from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) domain, @uspto.gov. These emails are a scam and do not come from the USPTO. Beware that these messages:
What you should do
If you receive any communication you believe is from the USPTO, you can double check it by going to our Trademark Status & Document Retrieval (TSDR) database and entering the trademark application or registration number. Your TSDR file will show outgoing communication from the USPTO, except the application filing receipt. If the letter or email you received does not appear in your TSDR file, then with few exceptions, it is not from the USPTO.
If you have received one of these fraudulent emails or paid money in response to such an email scam, you may file a consumer complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.
Next steps
Visit our solicitations webpage for a list of examples of solicitations from entities unaffiliated with the USPTO, including known scams, potentially misleading offers and notices, and other non-USPTO solicitations about which we have received inquiries or complaints. If you received a solicitation from a company not on our list, email us at TMScams@uspto.gov. Include copies of the solicitation and, if applicable, the envelope it came in, so we can assess whether to add the sender to our examples list. We do not need to be notified about companies already on the list.
The fee schedule was updated with the following changes, effective September 1:
PCT Fees to Foreign Offices
The fee schedule provides information and fee rates for our products and services. For additional information, please call the USPTO Contact Center at 571-272-1000 or 800-786-9199, or visit the PCT Fees page of the USPTO website.
Share your insights and experiences in the biotechnology areas at our next Biotechnology, Chemical, and Pharmaceutical Customer Partnership (BCP) Meeting. The meeting will take place online September 17, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET.
Topics to be covered during the meeting include:
To register, please email USPTOBCP1600@uspto.gov by Tuesday, September 15. Please include the following information:
For more information, visit the meeting event page on the USPTO website.
Documents submitted via EFS-Web and Patent Center that were experiencing delays are now available in Private PAIR's IFW tab and Patent Center's Documents and Transactions tab.
If you have any questions, please contact the Patent Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 1-866-217-9197, Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to midnight ET, or ebc@uspto.gov.
Join the next Boardside Chat webinar on Thursday, September 3, from noon to 1 p.m. ET for a discussion about several aspects of ex parte appeals.
Acting Vice Chief Judge Mike Kim and Vice Chief Judge Janet Gongola will share information about current appeal pendency statistics and the new Fast-Track Appeal Pilot Program, through which an appellant can secure a Board decision in six months. Additionally, Judges Annette Reimers, Tara Hutchings, and Ifti Ahmed will present practice tips and examples for enhancing your advocacy skills in ex parte appeals.
The webinar is free and open to all. There will be a Q&A session at the end. Please send questions in advance or during the webinar to PTABBoardsideChat@uspto.gov.
More information, including the webinar access information, is available on the PTAB Boardside Chat page of the USPTO website.
USPTO would like to hear your feedback on proposed revisions to the examination guidelines regarding digitally created or altered and mockup specimens. Below is a summary of proposed changes:
To provide feedback:
For more information about how to set up an account and use this tool, review the How to use IdeaScale page on the USPTO website.
Documents submitted via EFS-Web and Patent Center are currently experiencing longer than expected delays in becoming available in Private PAIR's IFW tab and Patent Center's Documents and Transactions tab. We are aware of the issue and are working to resolve it.
For updates on this issue, please visit the USPTO Systems Status and Availability page on the USPTO website.
If you have any questions, please contact the Patent Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 1-866-217-9197, Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to midnight ET, or ebc@uspto.gov.