As of May 13, 2025, the United States Patent and Trademark Office has accelerated the time between issue notification and issue date to approximately 2 weeks from a previous average of 3 weeks. The USPTO states that expedited issuance has been made possible through elimination of administrative redundancies and by the electronic grant (eGrant) system. […]
Continue Reading →When the first inventor to file (FITF) provision of the America Invents Act AIA became effective in 2013, US patent law was only in part harmonized with patent law in most other Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) countries. One important difference between the US and many other PCT countries is that US patent examination fees are due […]
Continue Reading →The American Bar Association (ABA), in response to Executive orders and comments from elected representatives, has publicly stated on at least three occasions its general support for the rule of law, the legal profession, and an independent judiciary. The ABA is a voluntary bar organization with over 400,000 lawyer members, which represent approximately 25% of […]
Continue Reading →John A. Squires has been nominated to serve as the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The nomination was sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 10, 2025. Squires brings decades of IP experience to the role, having served as Chief Intellectual […]
Continue Reading →A joint memo dated February 26, 2025, from the U.S. Office of Management Budget and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management may lead to staff reductions at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The memo provides guidance to the Department of Government Efficiency Workforce Optimization Initiative. The memo begins by acknowledging that the federal […]
Continue Reading →Our U.S. Constitution, Article I Section 8, Clause 8, gives Congress the power to “promote the progress of science and the useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” This is known as the Patent Clause of the Constitution. The executive order to […]
Continue Reading →In its final rule issued on November 20, 2024, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued changes to set or increase certain patent fees. The revised fees will take effect on January 19, 2025. There will not be a new fee for After Final Consideration Pilot 2.0 requests as was proposed, nor will […]
Continue Reading →On November 18, 2024, the USPTO issued a final rule to increase certain trademark filing fees. The fees will take effect January 18, 2025. While the per Class fee for filing a standard electronic trademark application has not changed and is still $350 per Class, the USPTO has eliminated the distinction between TEAS Standard and […]
Continue Reading →Proposed fee changes for 2025 have passed the notice and comment period and are expected to go into effect in the USPTO’s 2025 fiscal year. The USPTO allowed for public comments on the proposal to be received up until May 28, 2024. The notice of proposed rulemaking followed a public hearing held by the Patent […]
Continue Reading →The USPTO has disabled the widely beloved First Office Action Estimator. The First Office Action Estimator was available to the public. It allowed many of our clients to check the status of their application without needing to communicate with us. The USPTO’s stated reasons for the disabling of the Estimator follow. “In fiscal year 2021, […]
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