Patent Office Announces First Bi-Coastal Biotechnology, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Partnership Meeting

Are you excited yet?  The Patent Office announced last week that it will hold its first bi-coastal partnership meeting in the areas of biotech, chemical, and pharma practice.

The official announcement reads:

This inaugural BCBCP expands USPTO’s long-standing partnership in the biotechnology industry sector to customers across the country. The next BCBCP Meeting will be held on September 17th and will be simultaneously available at locations on both the EAST (Alexandria, VA) and West (San Jose, CA) coasts. During the BCBCP, participants will be able to interact with Office personnel in person on both coasts, or alternatively, via webcast. The Biotechnology, and Chemical and Pharmaceutical Customer Partnership was developed to create a collaborative forum for USPTO customers in this industry sector to share ideas, experiences, and insights with USPTO staff. The BCBCP is intended to be informal in nature and will include participants from across the industry. Some of the topics to be discussed by USPTO staff and industry customers will include:

• Markush claim practice

• Patent application filing best practices

• RCE practice

• Overview of patent application initiatives

• Panel discussion on U.S. Supreme Court decisions

(e.g. Alice Corp., v. Cls Bank International. 134 S. Ct. 1537 (Supreme Court March 21, 2014); and Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., 133 S. Ct. 2107, 186 L.Ed. 2d 124 (2013))

This will be an important meeting because it will be the first since a number of recent Supreme Court cases which have somewhat muddled the water.  Explanation and education from the Patent Office is generally a good thing in working toward clarity and transparency.