Remember when the practice of patent law was “fun”?

June 12, 2008 on 12:01 pm | In Legislation/Regulation, The-Practice-of-Law, USPTO |

It isn’t anymore…hasn’t been for a few years. My fellow practitioners know exactly what I mean.

Then, I read this:

…The SPE indicated that it was the policy in his Art Group not to issue
any patents any more. In fact, some examiners in this unidentified Art
Group have not issued a single patent in over 2 years!

PLI Patent Practice Center Blog on “Quality Review Shutting Down the USPTO.”

Wonderful.

As Gene says in that post:

If you have
come across any suspicious activity that might suggest there are
examiners, supervisors or Art Groups that are refusing to issue any
patents please let me know. If you have seen a ridiculous rejection
let me know. I am happy to keep all sources confidential.

Apparently, quite a few people have sent Gene emails about that post (see “More Quality Review Madness“). If you’ve seen something odd…you might want to contact Gene too.

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3 Comments

  1. I’m just curious…why do you all say that IP law isn’t fun anymore? I realize that opens a whole can of worms so I’m sorry I can’t drill it down for you.

    I can definitely say that from my end, the perseveration over IP is making my job much less fun. Everybody and his dog wants a patent. Why is it, that in a climate of increasing IP paranoia, there’s actually less innovation? It is not unusual that most of the “ideas” I see from “innovators” are things of which the patent expired twenty years ago… It is very annoying and tiresome.

    It’s gotten to the point that it’s all I can do to not slam the phone down when someone asks if I’ll sign an NDA. In my experience, the worse the product idea, the more obsessed the person is with protecting their idea.

    Comment by kathleen — June 13, 2008 #

  2. >why do you all say that IP law isn’t fun anymore?
    The process has become very adversarial in the past few years, seeming (to me) to go FROM a system where the Patent Office’s role was to issue a patent unless you were not entitled to one (burden on the Patent Office) TO system where the Patent Office refuses to issue a patent unless you fight tooth and nail to prove you are entitled to one (burden on the Applicant). It is the adversarial atmosphere that has made the practice of “patent law less fun.” [note: I should have used “patent law” instead of “IP law”…it is only the patent side that has been unfun.

    Comment by Steve Nipper — June 13, 2008 #

  3. I agree with Steve; it is SUPPOSED to be ex parte - the Examiner works with the applicant to obtain the best patent allowed (if allowable) based on the prior art. Now it is adversarial (contrary to the law, I might add). We continue to see junk for Office Actions that just throw all the alleged prior art the Examiner finds at the applicant claiming 102 and/or 103 rejections with no basis in fact or law. There are still some good/fair Examiners at the USPTO but they seem to be the minority. The majority seem to want to fight with the applicant, not assist in obtaining a valid patent based on true prior art.

    Comment by Frank — June 14, 2008 #

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