The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has reduced patent fees for small entities and micro entities. The USPTO has amended patent fees for small and micro entities set forth in its regulations to implement the provisions of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023—which included the Unleashing American Innovators Act of 2022 (UAIA). The UAIA,…
Trademark cancellations are adversarial proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) of the USPTO to defeat the registration of a mark. A trademark opposition seeks to block a mark from registering. A trademark cancellation seeks to cancel a registered mark. Therefore, trademark oppositions relate to pending applications whereas cancellations pertain to registrations. As…
An abandoned trademark application can be reinstated by filing a petition in a limited sense. If a response to a rejection is not filed within six months from the mailing date of the rejection, the applicant will go abandoned. In order to get accepted by the USPTO, a petition to revive the abandoned application must…
Large, small and micro are the types of entity, depending on which an applicant will pay a different fee to the USPTO. If each party holding rights in the invention qualifies as a small entity (e.g., independent inventor, a small business, or a nonprofit organization), federal fees for filing, searching, examining, issuing, appealing, and maintaining…
A provisional patent application allows you to establish an invention date or a priority date without filing a nonprovisional regular patent application. The filing date of a provisional application serves as an early effective filing date in a later filed nonprovisional application if the nonprovisional application is filed within 12 months from the filing date…
Petition to Make Special An application may be made special upon filing a petition including any evidence showing that at least one named inventor is 65 years of age, or more, such as the inventor’s statement or a statement from a registered practitioner that evidences that the inventor is 65 years of age or older.…
The America Invents Act (AIA) effective March 16, 2013 is the first major revision of US patent law for about 60 years and it introduces some fairly significant changes. The law switched the U.S. rights to a patent from the previous “first-to-invent” system to a “first inventor-to-file” system for patent applications filed on or after…
The subject matter eligibility guidance (PEG) of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) explains how the Office personnel including patent examiners should evaluate claims for patent subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. 101. The federal agency discloses that the October 2019 Update responds to public comments regarding the 2019 PEG. The update does…