| Trademark Association Bulletin, Vol. 47, No. 2, January 30, 1992]. | ||
| H. COMMITTEE REPORTS | ||
| A ) PATENT LAW | ||
| A summary of recent developments in patent law, prepared by Edward J. Cabic, | ||
| is provided in Attachment E. | ||
| B ) AD HOC COMMITTEE | ||
| The Ad Hoc Committee on PTO Affairs conveys the following practice notes on | ||
| behalf of the PTO: | ||
| 1) Applicants are encouraged to specify delivery box numbers on their mailings | ||
| to the PTO. In 95% of the instances where those numbers are specified, according to the Office, the correspondence will be delivered to the Examining Corps within three days. | ||
| 2) In completing applications that were originally prepared abroad, U.S. patent | ||
| attorneys and agents are encouraged to address more fully the prior art. The PTO notes that cases initially prepared in the U.S. tend to sufficiently describe the prior art. That is not so, the Office claims, with cases prepared abroad and submitted to U.S. counsel for filing with the PTO. | ||
| 3) The PTO is now recording, along with assignments, the accompanying | ||
| transmittal letters. The Office reports that this reduces processing time. | ||
| The Ad Hoc committee reports that the PTO has rejected a proposal that | ||
| biotechnology applications be examined in two stages. Under the proposal, each application would be subjected to formal examination within the first year. This would permit applicants to incorporate necessary changes into their applications prior to convention filing. Substantive examination would be conducted later, in the normal course. | ||
| The PTO disagrees that design patent applications are taking "second fiddle" to | ||
| utility cases. The Office's ultimate goal is reportedly to achieve pendency of twelve months for design cases. To this end, the group director is encouraging examiners to contact applicants (or their representatives) by phone to conduct telephone interviews. The Office also contemplates a rule change that would permit applicants to describe the article subject to design protection, thus reducing the time spent by Examiners inquiring into this. | ||
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