America Invents Act

The USPTO has released updated filing statistics for several of the AIA proceedings that became available September 16, 2012.  The statistics, cumulative as of April 30, 2013, include data for preissuance submission filings, supplementation examination filings, inter partes review filings, and covered business methods.  Click here to see the updated statistics.

For more information on preissuance submissions, click here.

For more information on supplementation examinations, click here.

For more information on inter partes review, click here.

For more information on covered business method patents, click here.

In an interesting article, SLW Patent Attorney Timothy E. Bianchi discusses the AIA’s option for parties to request termination of an action before a final decision by the PTAB.  The article highlights recent settlements that have already begun in PTAB proceedings. See the article here.

The USPTO’s new fees became effective on March 19, 2013.  The new fee structure increased the maintenance fees due at 3.5, 7.5 and 11.5 years after issuance.  An interesting study has analyzed the number of filings paid per week leading up to the new fee implementation on March 19.  To see the study describing how many patent owners took advantage of paying their maintenance fees early to avoid the new, higher fees, click here.

The USPTO has released a series of tips and recommendations for using the inventor’s oath or declaration provision of the AIA, effective September 16, 2012.  Specifically, the tips include discussions on the use of a substitute statement, the process for correcting inventorship and changing inventor’s names or the order of names for joint inventorship.  Additionally, the post covers instructions for completing specific types of inventor oath or declaration forms and related fact patterns to determine what oath or declaration documents might be included in such a filing.

To see the helpful post, click here.

For more information on the inventor’s oath or declaration provision of the AIA, see our website here.

The USPTO is still accepting comments through April 15, 2013 on the preparation of patent applications.  The notice was published in the Federal Register in January and describes “potential practices that applicants can employ at the drafting stage of a patent application in order to facilitate examination and bring more certainty to the scope of issued patents.”

For a discussion on more details surrounding the preparation of patent applications, click here.

The USPTO held a public forum on March 15, 2013 to discuss the first-inventor-to-file final rules and examining guidelines as implemented by the AIA.  The forum also related to the micro entity discount and the new patent fee schedule, effective March 19, 2013.

To watch a video of the public forum, click here.

The USPTO has released filing statistics for several of the AIA procedures that became effective September 16, 2012.  The statistics, cumulative as of March 31, 2013, provide information for preissuance submission filings, supplementation examination filings, inter partes review filings, and covered business methods.  Click here to see the USPTO’s statistics.

For more information on preissuance submissions, click here.

For more information on supplementation examinations, click here.

For more information on inter partes review, click here.

For more information on covered business method patents, click here.

The USPTO has released a graph showing the number of patent applications filed each weekday through March 19, 2013.  The chart, as seen here, indicates the high number of application filings surrounding the implementation of the AIA provisions on both September 16, 2013 and March 16, 2013.  For a more detailed discussion of the USPTO’s statistical data, see an interesting analysis here.

Another additional study examines weekly application filings for the first ten weeks of 2013 through March 15, 2013.  The study indicates that in January and February of 2013, the USPTO received about 7,100 non-provisional filings per week.  For the week ending on March 15, 2013, just before the final implementation of the remaining AIA provisions, over 34,000 non-provisional applications were filed.  The study also examines provisional application filing data.  See the analysis in more detail here.

In the final video of Schwegman Lundberg & Woessner’s five part series on the practical implications of the AIA, attorney John Fischer discusses the AIA’s new fee structure and related filing considerations.  Check out the fifth video here.

To read more about the specific fees, effective as of March 19th, 2013, check out the USPTO’s website here.

The USPTO has released the examining training materials on their AIA-micro site which they are using to help their examiners identify whether an application is subject to the first-to-invent provisions of pre-AIA law or the first-inventor-to-file provisions of the AIA.  The examining material can be found here.

The USPTO has also released a series of four short videos to help further understanding of the new AIA provisions.  Each video explains a specific aspect of the prior art framework.  The four videos can be found on the USPTO’s website here.