7
By way of preface, this is all opinion. As far as I know, there are no empirical studies on this.
I suspect that a US or EP examiner is much more likely to reject an application for lacking novelty or being obvious (compared to China, or for that matter, Japan, the UK, Australia, Canada etc). If your yardstick for rigor is the likelihood of rejection, then ...
4
The USPTO tries to follow the law and the rules. To show a person skilled in the art how to make and use an invention doesn't mean you need to give them production blueprints - especially in the "predictable arts". Also, the implementation the inventor describes doesn't need to work particularly well. One way to think about it might be "is there more ...
4
They are all required to have at least a B.S in a science or engineering field but are not necessarily assigned to their specific expertise. Much of the subject matter education is on the job.
However, the examining corp is organized into Technology Centers. One of them is 2400 that covers "Computer networking, Multiplex communication, Cryptography/...
4
I have a slightly different conclusion drawn based on my experience.
I see that chinese examiners are tedious in searching prior art and their objections are almost always described in a detailed manner, which means they have at least checked that specific part of the cited prior art. I've seen them quite reluctant to grant an inventive step which usually ...
3
Until an application is published it is not prior art. It is not accessible by an examiner but even it was it could not be used as prior art.
However, once it is published it can be prior art with the priority date of its filing. In the U.S., this means that it can be used to show another application is obvious as of the date of its filing even though no ...
3
They certainly don't have to help you, but as far as I know they might. I heard that as an inventor without attorney calling an examiner ans asking nicely for some discussion can lead to good results. But it depends on the examiner and the interpersonal dynamics. My guess is that you could try asking what claim combinations the examiner thinks have a chance, ...
2
You are free to retract the Power of Attorney you signed and take over the case but you will need to do that before you send in anything. The USPTO will not deal with you while your attorney is still empowered. Also you can change attorneys. There is no requirement to stick with the practitioner who originally filed.
Writing a patent well is hard for a ...
2
PHOSTIA is a hypothetical person having omniscient knowledge of publications in the field as of the day of filing but ordinary skill.
During examination at the USPTO what level this person might be is usually glossed over. In court it becomes an issue of debate. Each side tries to convince the judge that their view of the level of expertise need to be a ...
2
The short answer is “no,” which is the answer I was hoping for. This was first confirmed in an answer written by a patent attorney (U.S. - CA) responding to my same question posted on quota.com. It was later confirmed to me in a phone call today with the USPTO.
So, it appears the Accelerated Examination option, when accessed based on the age or medical ...
2
The validity of the other patent may be challenged, or, a simpler approach, a license may be obtained. Regarding the insufficient work of an examiner, well... that's unfortunately something we have to live with.
I personally come very often across patents that are ridiculous in light of prior art, or they are even prior art themselves. In those cases, one ...
2
If I understand your question, you have a transitional application for which you did not timely provide the '1.78 statement' required by 37 C.F.R. 1.78 and MPEP 2159.04.
Since the application data sheet (ADS) form PTO/AIA/14 includes a checkbox for making the statement under 37 C.F.R. 1.78, you may still be able to make the statement by filing a corrected/...
2
In the US, the AIA amended the rules to allow third parties to submit prior art during prosecution.
MPEP 1134.01 Third Party Submissions Under 37 CFR 1.290 [R-11.2013]
Third parties can submit prior art by the later of:
1) within 6 months of publication of the application; or
2) before the first Office Action.
If for some reason there is a Notice ...
2
Any claim that is not either objected to or rejected is inherently accepted so they all need to be dealt with in the first office action. The independent claim might be non-novel or obvious but any of the dependent claims might add enough limitations to achieve patentablity.
I strongly advise to not have that many claims. It might be annoying to the ...
2
Normally SPEs do not examine patent applications but are examined by PEs/AEs. PEs/AEs apprise, consult respective SPE and office action intimation are issued as suggested or advised by SPE. Your application in all likely hood is to be assigned to a PE as mentioned in the communication - "The application is waiting to be assigned a examiner."
For ...
2
There is no particular office I would say. Some patent offices have examiners more knowledgeable in some topics than others, then some examiners are better than others. You could file the same application twice with the same patent office and get two completely different search reports. Since no patent office guarantees a perfect search report, some ...
2
In the past I got several good searches with KPO as ISA. From the U.S. the cost is still about 1/2 what it would be from the EPO. When I started using Korea they were new and charged even less.
It is not part of the body of the question but you could hire a search firm.
2
Making B or C special due to age will not change the course of A at all. If there are a few claims in A that you would really like examined quickly you could include them in an expedited B (if a CIP) and cancel them from A. Note that an application made special for age has a limit on the number of claims.
CIPs are not as magic as people sometimes think. Any ...
1
From your question it looks like it has come off a queue and been assigned to an art unit. The SPE is the manager of the art unit and has the job to assign the examination to someone in that unit. There will be a queue to go through and then it will be assigned. Then it is in the queue of the specific examiner who will do the examination under the SPE's ...
1
For anyone else who finds themselves in this situation, the following fixed it for me:
file the terminal disclaimer and pay the fee
submit an A.NE "Response after final action" documenting your oversight and confirming that you have now filed the terminal disclaimer
call the examiner, point out that you have done steps 1 and 2, and apologize
All this can ...
1
Yes, examiners just try to do their best. Some practitioners deliberately obfuscate the field of their invention in hopes to get an Examiner that will be more friendly (inexperienced) to the technology.
EDIT to address the concerns of questioner:
Because the standard is a Person (singular) Having Ordinary Skill in the Art (singular), the USPTO chooses the ...
1
Building on what George said -- there will be some argument about this, and it is a good question. But generally, the PHOSITA will be somewhat specific to the field. There have been cases where the PHOSITA was described narrowly enough that only a few people on the planet fit the definition -- you just have to argue that it's a highly specialized field, and ...
1
At the depatisnet register. https://register.dpma.de/DPMAregister/Uebersicht?lang=en Search for the patent number then you can find the documents.
1
This means that before the patent has actually issued it is not a patent. The USPTO preserves a right to withdraw it from issue up until it has actually issued (this can for example happen if there is a change of patent laws that causes a need for reexamination), and also the pending application may become abandoned if you fail to timely submit payment of ...
1
You still have to pay the issue fee. After that, the USPTO will grant your patent and publish it formally, at which point you'll have your full patent rights.
1
Everything in the published patent along with everything in the publicly available file history associated with the application is considered prior art.
Documents are eligible for use as prior art as of the date they are publicly available. In this case, all versions of the application, even canceled claims (and even if some parts of the specification and/...
1
The figure associated with the canceled claims is in the published patent because the patent was never amended to remove it. There is no requirement to remove material not claimed from a patent application.
Yes, everything disclosed in the published patent is available as prior art.
1
A person who is familiar with thingumajig and doohickey - the person needs to be familiar with the prior art (as this is the current state of the art), so an engineer, who has never seen a doohickey would not be skilled in that art.
So it is rather specific.
As another example:
If you make a new mouse trap, then the art is "making traps for animals". If ...
1
Especially in light of the fact that the inventor, if enablement is
taken into account, must be in full possession of the exact recipe for
at least one embodiment.
Not necessarily. An example of the invention can be "prophetic", describing predicted results as opposed to something the inventor actually did. The case Gould v. Quigg was over a ...
1
George White has the key - because it all relates to 'a person skilled (or of ordinary skill) in the art' - the famed and elusive "POSITA."
In other words, a person of ordinary skill in the field of the patent should be able to practice it without inventive steps. A new transmission design should be able to be designed without undue experimentation by an ...
1
"Why does the patent office not stipulate this to be, say, 1 week?"
Short answer: because the patent office doesn't make the rules; the patent office merely follows the rules written by Congress and interpreted by the Courts.
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