Thursday, December 24, 2015

USPTO - Major Power Outage and Service Interruption on December 22-25, 2015

The USPTO stated it had "a major power outage on December 22, 2015, damaging equipment that required the subsequent shutdown of many of its online and IT systems. This includes its filing, searching, and payment systems, as well as the systems used by examiners across the country. As of December 24, the USPTO estimates that these systems will be impacted through at least the Federal holiday on Friday, December 25, 2015." 

"The USPTO web site at http://www.uspto.gov/blog/ebiz/ reports that under this emergency situation, it will consider each day from Tuesday, December 22, 2015, through Thursday, December 24, 2015, to be a “Federal holiday within the District of Columbia” under 35 U.S.C. § 21 and 37 C.F.R. §§ 1.6, 1.7, 1.9, 2.2(d), 2.195, and 2.196. Any action or fee due on these days will be considered as timely for the purposes of, e.g., 15 U.S.C. §§ 1051(b), 1058, 1059, 1062(b), 1063, 1064, and 1126(d), or 35 U.S.C. §§ 119, 120, 133, and 151, if the action is taken, or the fee paid, on the next succeeding business day on which the USPTO is open (37 C.F.R. §§ 1.7(a) and 2.196). 

A subsequent notice is anticipated to be issued as needed if the USPTO’s systems are not fully operational by Monday, December 28, 2015.

Correspondence

Under 37 C.F.R. §§ 1.6(a)(2), 2.195(a)(4), and 2.198, certain correspondence deposited in the Priority Mail Express® service of the United States Postal Service (USPS) in accordance with 37 C.F.R. §§ 1.10 or 2.198 will be considered filed on the date of deposit (as shown by the “date accepted” on the mailing label) with the USPS.

Thus, any paper or fee properly deposited in the Priority Mail Express® service of the USPS on Tuesday, December 22, 2015, Wednesday, December 23, 2015, or Thursday, December 24, 2015, in accordance with 37 C.F.R. §§ 1.10 or 2.198, will be considered filed on its respective date of deposit in the Priority Mail Express® service of the USPS (as shown by a “date accepted” on the mailing label).

Under 37 C.F.R. §§ 1.6(a)(4) and 2.195(a)(2), patent- and trademark-related correspondence transmitted electronically to the USPTO will be considered filed in the USPTO on the date the USPTO received the electronic transmission.

Thus, any patent- or trademark-related correspondence transmitted electronically to the USPTO on Tuesday, December 22, 2015, Wednesday, December 23, 2015, or Thursday, December 24, 2015, will be considered filed in the USPTO on the date the USPTO received the electronic transmission.
Patent correspondence successfully received by the USPTO through the Electronic Filing System (EFS-Web) and filed in compliance with the EFS-Web Legal Framework will receive the date indicated on the Acknowledgement Receipt. 

Trademark filings properly filed through TEAS, TEASi, and ESTTA will receive the date indicated in the e-mail confirmation sent at the time of a successful filing.

Payment Processing
 
The USPTO system outage has affected the ability for customers to process Patent Maintenance Fee payments and submit Deposit Account replenishments online via the Finance Online Shopping Page. Available alternatives include the following:

Patent Maintenance Fees:  Pay by wire or mail as instructed at www.uspto.gov/patents-maintaining-patent/maintain-your-patent. The payment date will be the date received at the USPTO unless you are using the certificate of mailing procedure set forth in 37 CFR 1.8 or the USPTO Priority Mail Express procedure set forth in 37 CFR 1.10.
 
Deposit Account Replenishment: Replenish by wire or mail as instructed at www.uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/fees-and-payment/deposit-accounts/deposit-account-replenishment-options. Note that replenishments will be processed as of the date received, but deposit account balances will not reflect these replenishments until USPTO systems are restored.
 
Public and Private Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) are also impacted.
Status updates will be issued on the USPTO systems alert page (www.uspto.gov/blog/ebiz/) as they become available, as well as on the USPTO Facebook (www.facebook.com/uspto.gov (link is external)) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/uspto (link is external)) accounts.

For further questions, contact the Patents Electronic Business Center (PEBC) by telephone at 1-866-217-9197 or by email at ebc@uspto.gov. PEBC hours of operation Monday through Friday, from 6 a.m. to midnight."

Copyright © 2015 Robert Moll. All rights reserved.

Thursday, December 10, 2015

UC Berkeley - Intellectual Property Protection for Computer Programs

The Berkeley Center for Law & Technology (BCLT) in conjunction with the Berkeley Technology Law Journal (BTLJ) is hosting a symposium on legal protection of computer software on April 14-15, 2016.

It will be held at the Chevron Auditorium, International House at UC Berkeley. Registration opens January 2016. Full agenda, with speakers.

As announced by BCLT: "In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision in Alice v. CLS Bank and its denial of Google’s petition for certiorari in the Oracle software copyright case, new uncertainties exist about the roles that patent, copyright, and other forms of IP are and should be playing in the legal protection of computer software.

It will bring together leading scholars in both law and economics, industry representatives, and practicing lawyers who will consider what the courts are getting right and wrong and how intellectual property law ought to evolve to do a better job for the industry and the public that so depends on software these days. The symposium will include sessions on the roles of patents, copyrights and trade secrecy. Also featured will be empirical research on the state of the software industry and on the evolving strategies on which software developers rely to protect their innovations."

Copyright © 2015 Robert Moll. All rights reserved.

Friday, December 4, 2015

Joe Mullin - Patent Trolls Filed Hundreds of Lawsuits to Beat December 1 Deadline - Brief Comment

In Patent Trolls Filed Hundreds of Lawsuits to Beat December 1 Deadline, Mr. Joe Mullin states the amendment to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure effective December 1, 2015 triggered a US patent litigation spike in late-November 2015. He attributes the spike, i.e., 790 filings, to those seeking to avoid unfavorable amendments such as the heightened standard for a patent infringement complaint and elimination of FRCP Form 18.

Mr. Mullin's observations are not that surprising given a good lawyer should file a lawsuit before the law changes adversely to a client. But what is less clear is why he talks about "patent trolls" filing hundreds of lawsuits. Why are they trolls? He explains "with the exception of pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, all the companies appear to be patent-holding shell companies." He might be right, but the danger is labeling a company a patent troll, because they have a business of licensing patents. Can't say I understand all of his views, but it appears the assumption is patent licensing by a non-practicing entity is a suspect category of business if you are an LLC and/or have an obscure name.

Copyright © 2015 Robert Moll. All rights reserved.