This column highlights some of the more notable recent internet notices, newsletters and blogs dealing with IP prosecution issues.

Hal Wegner’s email newsletter – a lot of great stuff – Contact: hwegner@foley.com.
Hal’s blog is now available at www.laipla.net/news-blog/blog.

  • In Hal’s May 2, 2013 email newsletter, he discussed the backlog of ex parte patent appeals at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

IPWatchdog – a patents and patent law blog – IPwatchdog.com

  • The May14, 2013 post states discusses the Federal Circuit’s equally divided en banc decision, CLS Bank v. Alice Corp., 2011-1301 (May 10, 2013).
  • On May 20, 2013, Eric Guttag discusses patent exhaustion, as applied to the planting of patented seeds.

Patent Docs – A patent blog – patentdocs.typepad.com/patent_docs

  • The May 16, 2013 post discussed the increase in PCT applications in 2012.
  • On May 27, 2013, Kevin E. Noonan discussed the “Broader Meanings of the CLS Bank Decision.”

Patently-O – a blog written by Dennis Crouch – www.patentlyo.com.

  • The May 6, 2013 post discussed James Taylor v. Taylor Made Plastics (M.D. Fla. 2013, 2013 WL 1798964, wherein the patentee lacked standing to sue because his ex-wife refused to join as co-plaintiff.
  • On May 21, 2013, a guest post by Shubha Ghosh discussed the Supreme Court’s recent opinion in Bowman v. Monsanto.

USPTO – the PTO’s website – uspto.gov

  • The Deputy Commissioner for Patent Examination Policy issued a memorandum on May 13, 2013 to the Patent Examining Corps on the Federal Circuit decision in CLS Bank, et al. v. Alice Corp. The memo stated, “there is no change in examination procedure for evaluating subject matter eligibility.” (emphasis in the original).
  • In a May 14, 2013 notice emailed from the USPTO, the office announced the planned phase out of the current United States Patent Classification (USPC) system by January 2015. The recently adopted Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) shared between the USPTO and the European Patent Office (EPO) will become the “future of classification for the USPTO and the EPO.”
  • In a June 5, 2013 press release, the USTPO announced that the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) will begin to classify some of its patent publications using the CPC jointly managed by the USPTO and the EPO.

AIPLA – the profession’s national organization – see AIPLA.org

  • The Chemical Patent Practice Road Show happens on June 20, 2013 in Wilmington, Delaware.

Miscellaneous

  • On June 12-14, 2013, The Practising Law Institute holds its “Fundamentals of Patent Prosecution 2013: A Boot Camp for Claim Drafting & Amendment Writing” in New York, NY. The same event arrives in San Francisco on July 10-12, 2013. More information>
  •  The Cardozo School of Law will host its first Summer Patent Law Institute for students and practitioners from July 15-July 19, 2013. More information >
  • The next Chisum Patent Academy sessions are in Seattle on July 31 – August 2, 2013 and August 5-7, 2013. More information >

For more information about any of the patent topics mentioned consult Patent Application Practice. Trademark topics are discussed in Trademark Registration Practice. Both are published by West and updated twice a year. For litigation questions,
contact Fred Douglas at 949/293-0442 or by email at fdouglas@cox.net.