The Invent Blog®

Article:  Intellectual Security: Patent Everything You Do, Before Someone Else Does

Not so sure I agree.  Sure, more patents are good (for patent attorneys), but I’m not so sure a troll is all that (1) worried about countersuit or (2) worried that because you patent you may have scary hidden prior art. 

Others may disagree. 

Did you know that the USPTO has FAQ’s?  You do now…

1. Request for Continued Examination (RCE) (Updated on 5/5/03; last reviewed on 7/18/02)
2. Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) (Updated B6 on 6/18/04; Updated on 5/5/03; last reviewed 7/18/02)
3. Eighteen-Month Publication (Added CX4 through CX14 on 2/4/05; updated CM1 on 5/20/04; updated 5/5/03 and added CAF2; last reviewed 7/18/02)
4. 102(e) (Updated on 12/16/02; last reviewed on 7/18/02)
5. 103(c) (Deleted E1 and E3 on 2/4/05; updated on 8/1/02; last reviewed on 7/18/02)
6. USPTO’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
7. Assignments
8. Fees
9. PAIR (Patent Application Information Retrieval)
10. TDR (Trademark Document Retrieval) 
11. FAQ for Practitioners re: Ethics and Relocations /Temporary Arrangements due to Hurricane Katrina
12. American Inventor’s Protection Act of 1999
13. Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences
1. Rules of Practice before the BPAI (effective 13SEP2004)
14. Design Patents
15. Electronic Filing System (EFS) (Patents)
16. Fees - Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005, Patent Fees
17. Native American Tribal Insignia Database
18. Patents
19. Patent Electronic Business Center
20. Patent Forms
21. PBG-Final Rule Questions & Answers, effective November 7, 2000  PBG = Patent Business Goals, the rules are changes to simplify Patent Practice
22. Power of Attorney and Assignment (Patents)
23. PUBS – Patent Grant Publications
24. Revised Amendment Practice (Patents)
25. Strategic Plan for the 21st Century
26. Strategy Targeting Organized Piracy (STOP!)
27. Trademarks

Question.  What is the reason you can’t access Non Patent Literature via PAIR in a file wrapper?  If you know, I’d love to know why.

"Images of non-patent literature (NPL) cited in public patent application files are not available for either viewing or downloading through Public PAIR."

Via the December 2005 issue of The Disclosure (the newsletter of the National Association of Patent Practitioners) comes a link to an article by NAPP Executive Director Joy L. Bryant, Esq. entitled “A Close Look at the Pre-Appeal Brief Conference Practice [MS Word .doc].”

It is an excellent primer on the topic.

Kevin Maney at USAToday (hat tip 271 Patent Blog) has researched the question of “who is the most prolific US inventor.” Surprisingly, there are FOUR Boise Idaho inventors (who work for Micron) in the top 11 living US inventors! No wonder Idaho is #1 for patents.

I have an post on the Rethink(IP) blog my readers may enjoy.  The article discusses using the web service at http://del.icio.us and contains a list of the best articles I added to my del.icio.us account in the last year related to "startup companies."  Check it out.

Oddly, I’ve probably done as much trademark work this year (mainly for foreign attorneys) as I have done patent work.

There are two really good trademark resources put out by the USPTO which I recommend.  These are recommended reading for every small business and independent inventor:

• Basic Facts About Trademarks
• Trademark FAQ

Of course, my patent firm has its own Trademark FAQ, which includes:

• What is a Trademark?
• What is a Servicemark?
• What are the various types of trademarks?
• What makes a trademark valuable?
• How do I obtain a Federal Trademark?
• How do I obtain an Idaho Trademark?
• Why register a trademark?
• How long do trademark rights last?
• If I don’t use someone else’s mark, am I alright?

ZDNet Blog: Idaho first, La. last in patent-population ratio

I don’t know why.  Maybe it is the USPTO’s PDF generator.  Maybe it is my printer (Xerox).  I don’t really care who is at fault…but I found a work around to my problems.

If I download a file wrapper PDF from the USPTO and print it to my Xerox printer, after the first page the printer locks up and kicks the print job.  If it doesn’t lock up, it prints really slow.

Yeah, yeah, yeah…probably my printer’s fault.

However, my work around makes me wonder.  After having a PDF die during printing, I did a little experiment.  I reprinted it to PDF using the Print to PDF driver (pdf995) I have on my computer.  I then sent the new PDF to the printer.  Guess what happened?  The printer didn’t lock up AND the printer printed the pages fast. 

Next time I am printing a PDF document that is printing really slow, guess what I am going to try…..

[Updated to fix formatting]

Patently-O blog has a post today entitled "First-to-Invent vs The Constitution" discussing whether or not the First-to-File proposed in the recent patent reform is actually unconstitutional.