It is nice to see that Bill Meade, frequent contributor to Guy Kawasaki’s blog, finally has his own blog: “Basicip’s Blog on Intellectual Property Management Consulting.” Check out his recent post on “What is an intellectual property strategy?“
Ten Ways to Improve the USPTO Website – Number 2
The second way to improve the USPTO.gov website would be to double check all of the information provided as facts.
For example, the Full-Text Database FAQ (among other pages) notes that (emphasis added):
Patents from January 1976 to the present offer the full searchable text, including all bibliographic data, such as the inventor’s name, the patent’s title, and the assignee’s name; the abstract; the full description of the invention; and the claims….
Patents from 1790 to December 1975 offer only the patent number, issue date, and current US patent classification in the text display, and can be searched only within those fields. However, this limited text display also includes a hyperlink to obtain full-page images of all pages of the patent.
While the page says that only patents January 1976 to the present are full text, a little digging reveals that the first full-text patent is U.S. Patent No. 3,555,944, issued January 19, 1971.
However, a quick review of the first design patent issued in 1976 (D238,315) reveals that it is not full text. Odd.
The solution would be to update that FAQ page (and everywhere else the topic is discussed) with the actual patent numbers and/or coverage of the Full-Text Database.
Update (2010.07.27): In digging through some old notes, I previously noted that the earliest full-text patent was 3,572,436. Perhaps they are slowly working backwords through the database…
Bilski Podcasts
A couple post-Bilski podcasts to link to:
- Patents in the Supreme Court: Bilski v. Kappos – A “panel podcast/debate” between Professor John Duffy (George Washington Law School) and David Olson (Boston College Law School), moderated by Professor Adam Mossoff (George Mason School of Law).
- This Week in Law – Episode 68 – “Whiz Bang Click” – “Bilski decision and the validity of business method patents, improving the Patent Office, finding relevant prior art, and more.” Host: Denise Howell, Guests: Erik Heels, J. Matthew Buchanan and Stephen Nipper.
Patent Plugin for FireFox
Kenneth Yip at Apsator e-mailed me to point out that they have a new version of their FireFox plugin available. See: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3142/. He notes:
…the new version introduces two breakthrough features. The first feature is to preview patent drawings in PNG format. There is no need for TIFF plugin. This not only reduces computer resource loading, but also allows printing the patent diagrams directly from the USPTO patent search result page. The second feature is to use Google Translate to translate patent abstract directly. These two features features hopefully will continue improve the effectiveness in reading patents. A guideline on how to use Aspator can be found at http://www.slideshare.net/patentinfo/how-to-use-aspator-in-your-patent-search.
Other features he lists:
- Read searched patent abstracts, claims, drawings and bibliographies from USPTo and esp@cenet on one single page.
- Patent classification analyzer.
- Direct access to esp@cenet and Google Patent Search.
- Download PDF of a patent through pat2pdf.org.
- Download multiple patents in one single PDF file or in separate PDF files.
- Store your search records.
It is a very hand tool worth checking out.
Great post on IDS – McKesson
Pharma Patents blog on Three Easy Solutions to the McKesson Problem.
Dealing with E-mail Overload
I recently wrote a three part series of articles for the Idaho State Bar’s magazine regarding how to deal with e-mail overload:
- Email Overload Part III – Hacking Your Own E-Mail, The Advocate (Official Publication of the Idaho State Bar), vol. 53, no. 6/7, p. 39-40 (June/July 2010).
- Email Overload Part II – Dealing with Interruptions, The Advocate (Official Publication of the Idaho State Bar), vol. 53, no. 5, p. 49 (May 2010).
- Email Overload Part I – Reducing Volume, The Advocate (Official Publication of the Idaho State Bar), vol. 53, no. 3, p. 42-43 (March 2010).
Let me know if you have any other tips for dealing with e-mail overload.
Summary of 35 USC 101 caselaw, software and business method patents
This really is the best summary of 35 U.S.C. §101 caselaw as it relates to software and/or business method patents:
@erikjheels on: A Mere Mortal’s Guide To Patents Post-Bilski (Or Why §101 Is A Red Herring)
Bookmark it.
This Week in Law – Bilski
I’ll be on This Week in Law (video podcast) this Friday, along with J. Matt Buchanan (Promote the Progress blog) discussing Bilski and whatever other interesting topics come up.
If you have any topics to suggest:
- Tag them via Delicious – http://delicious.com/thisweekinlaw/68
- Post them to Twitter via Twitter hashtag #twil68
- Post them via TWiL’s Facebook page
Watch/listen in online: http://live.twit.tv/
When: Friday, July 9th at 11 a.m. Pacific/noon Mountain/1 p.m. Central/2 p.m. Eastern
In re Bilski Roundup
I doubt any readers of this blog don’t know that the Supreme Court decided In re Bilski on Monday.
Rather than summarize the case like every other patent blog…I’ll link to what everyone else is saying:
- USPTO Memo to Examiners on the case – http://www.uspto.gov/patents/law/exam/bilski_guidance_28jun2010.pdf
- Patenthawk – Meaning
- American IPA – Is 101 Redundant?
- Patentability Blog – The Supreme Court’s Bilski Decision: Business Method Patents Survive (But Bilski’s Risk Management Claims Are Not Patentable Subject Matter)
- Patently-O – Ongoing Commentary on Bilski v. Kappos
- Patently-O – Guest Post on Bilski: Throwing Back the Gauntlet
- Philip Brooks’ Patent Infringement Updates – U.S. Supreme Court Affirms Bilski, But Sets The Course Clear For Business Methods Patents
- Patent Baristas – Bilski: S.Ct Refuses to Prohibit Software, Business Method, and Medical Diagnostic Method Patents
- Patently-O – Guest Post: Why Bilski Benefits Startup Companies
- AwakenIP - Bilski Inventors Comment on Decision
- The Prior Art – Supreme Court Decides Bilski: Stevens and Allies Try to Ban “Business Method” Patents, but Fail to Get Fifth Vote
- IPWatchdog.com – Dissecting Bilski: The Meaning of the Supreme Patent Decision
- Inventive Step – Bilski
- Anticipate This! – Bilski Decision Issued by SCOTUS Today
- Patent Prospector – Vapors
- Patently-O – Bilski v. Kappos and the Anti-State-Street-Majority
- Modern Times Legal Patent Blog – Near-knockout: 10 takeaways from the Supreme Court’s Bilski decision
- Two-Seventy-One Patent Blog – SCOTUS Bilski Decision: “Do No Harm”
- Philip Brooks’ Patent Infringement Updates – Supreme Court Decides Bilski; Rules that Business Methods Survive
- IPWatchdog.com – Supremes Decide Bilski: Machine or Transformation Not the Only Test, Bilski Not Patentable
- American IPA – First impression of Bilski
- Two-Seventy-One Patent Blog – (Finally!) The Bilski Decision Arrives
- Patently-O – Bilski v. Kappos
- 37 Thoughts -Decision in Bilski v. Kappos
Ten Ways to Improve the USPTO Website – Number 1
Back in the “ReThink(IP)” days, we had a frequent meme called “Things we hate about uspto.gov.” Sadly, most of those “things” are still issues.
I thought it might be fun to revisit that list (and expand on it) via a series of posts here that I will tag with “uspto” and “feedback”. Perhaps the new, friendlier USPTO will fix some of them. We can only hope.
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Issue: TESS times out on a user if the user stops using it for a very short period of time. While that, itself, is quite annoying (I can’t think of any other website I use that tells me that my session has “timed out”), the REAL annoying part is that the time out page doesn’t return you to the TESS search page. Instead, it dumps you back to the USPTO home page, requiring the user to navigate back to the TESS search page.
Solution: Return the user to the TESS landing page so they can continue searching.