Did you miss the deadline for responding to an office action or pay a maintenance fee? Don’t despair; you’ve got options. Before December 18, 2013, applicants who missed the deadline for responding to an office action but wanted to continue prosecuting their application would have filed a petition to the Commissioner for Patents requesting that…
Should I file a provisional patent application? Source: USPTO.GOV Rob Hodge, Office of Innovation Development One of the most frequent questions independent inventors ask is whether they should file a provisional patent application. But there is no surefire answer. Every situation is unique, and what works for one inventor might not work for another. Only…
Trademarks, patents, copyrights, domain names, and business name registrations all differ, so it is important to learn whether a trademark is appropriate for you. A trademark typically protects brand names and logos used on goods and services. A patent protects an invention. A copyright protects an original artistic or literary work. For example, if you…
Selecting a Mark Once you determine that the type of protection you need is, in fact, trademark protection, then selecting a mark is the very first step in the overall application/registration process. This must be done with thought and care, because not every mark is registrable with the USPTO. Nor is every mark legally protectable,…
Is a trademark application right for you? Trademarks, patents, copyrights, domain names, and business name registrations all differ, so it is important to learn whether a trademark is appropriate for you. A trademark typically protects brand names and logos used on goods and services. A patent protects an invention. A copyright protects an original artistic…
Source: USPTO.GOV The Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is seeking nominations for the 2017 National Medal of Technology and Innovation. WASHINGTON – The Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is seeking nominations for the 2017 National Medal of Technology and Innovation. The medal is presented each year…
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) utilizes PAIR – Patent Application Information Retrieval System. PAIR has a private site that provides a USPTO/Internet infrastructure capability to securely provide patent application status information to USPTO customers with a customer number associated with the correspondence address for their application and the appropriate software tools. PAIR also has…
Correction of Patents Once the patent is granted, it is outside the jurisdiction of the USPTO except in a few respects. The Office may issue without charge a certificate correcting a clerical error it has made in the patent when the printed patent does not correspond to the record in the Office. These are mostly…
The USPTO fee schedule is subject to change and there is no refund after paying a fee. Certain fees do not apply to design or provisional patent applications. Source: USPTO.GOV Fee Code 37 CFR Description Fee Small Entity Fee Micro Entity Fee Patent Application Filing Fees Back to Top 1011/2011/3011 1.16(a) Basic filing fee – Utility…
Patent Searches If you are interested in filing a patent application to protect your invention it is always a good idea to first conduct a patent search to help make sure that there are no patented inventions that can be found that are closely similar to your own invention. We can help you if you are…
