Patents can protect inventions, ornamental designs on articles of manufacture, and asexually reproduced plants. A utility patent is available for a new, nonobvious, and useful invention that falls into one of the following categories: Process Machine Article of manufacture Composition…
There is no black-and-white requirement to build a prototype prior to filing a patent application, but in some cases, it is helpful, and in other cases, it will be required by the circumstances.
The US has been operating under the full enacted provisions of the America Invents Act for over six months now, and some of the questions presented by the new law have been answered. However, one area of uncertainty – troubling…
The Patent and Trademark Office is unlikely to be closed if a government shutdown takes place tonight. The Office has a great deal of control over its own budget, and it maintains a reserve fund of money for certain situations…
A centralized listing of major Patent Application Initiatives is now available via the USPTO website that provides applicants with access to information on several patent initiatives designed to advance and support the examination process. Applicants now have a single website…
When an application has been fully examined and approved for issuance, the Patent Office issues a Notice of Allowance. The Notice of Allowance does not confer patent rights, however. You must still respond to the Notice of Allowance by both…
Patent on the Web Upgrade The USPTO has upgraded the USPTO Full Text and Image Database. It now uses PDF images instead of TIFF images which provides several new benefits including the ability to print full documents. Patent images may…
In the past 6 months, I’ve noticed in my own practice that the Patent Office has increased the speed with which a first office action is issued, compared to historical numbers. However, the sequester has had an effect on the…
A continuation patent application is a type of continuing application. Yes, “continuation” does have a separate meaning from “continuing,” and each are proper terms in patent-ese. A few weeks ago I wrote about divisional applications, which are another type of…
There is a whole world of patent applications beyond the original nonprovisional patent application. There are provisional, plant, design, reissue, divisional, continuation, continued prosecution, and continuation-in-part applications. These last four applications are known as continuing applications, because they continue from…