Director's Forum: David Kappos' Public Blog

USPTO Co-Sponsors IP Small Claims Roundtable

2012-05-16T11:03:39-04:00

Last Thursday (May 10, 2012), a roundtable of intellectual property experts convened at the George Washington University Law School. It was co-sponsored by the USPTO and the U.S. Copyright Office. The purpose of this roundtable meeting was to consider the possible introduction of small claims proceedings for patent and/or copyright claims.

The day began with framing of the challenge: offering access to IP justice to creators least resourced but often most in need, in an age in which creative works (both in the copyright and patent domain) are more subject to disputes, of all magnitude, than ever before. Presentations followed on the small claims system in the UK, and the U.S. Constitutional limitations on the nature of such procedures, including the Seventh Amendment right to a jury, Article III judicial power, and due process.

In breakout sessions on patents and copyrights, attendees discussed the need for and ways to structure a small claims system in both areas.

This productive session was a first step in determining whether and how it makes sense for the government to help set new parameters for the resolution of small claims in the patent and copyright areas. USPTO will continue to work with the Copyright Office on taking these ideas forward, so stay tuned. And of course, as always, if you have thoughts on this topic please let us know.

Building a Better Post Grant

2012-05-15T08:55:21-04:00

Guest blog by Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the USPTO Teresa Stanek Rea

Currently, the USPTO has two principal ways of challenging granted patents - inter partes reexamination and ex parte reexamination. Both of these are an examination performed in the Patent Examining Corps, specifically in the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU). Inter partes reexamination has not proven as efficient as was originally intended. It has taken an average of 32 to 38 months to move from filing to issuance of a final reexamination certificate. The time to a final determination within the USPTO is even longer, when you factor in appeals. To best serve the applicant community, Congress directed the Agency in the America Invents Act (AIA) to implement more efficient and timely alternatives to litigation.

On September 16, 2011, President Obama signed the AIA into law. It establishes three post grant proceedings conducted by the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (Board). These proceedings include post grant review, inter partes review and the transitional program for covered business method patents. The AIA also renames the Board as the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

The size and experience level of the Board is being significantly expanded to handle the new proceedings. The Board now has more than 120 judges, with many of the new members coming from outside the USPTO. Many of the new judges have considerable litigation and patent prosecution experience, augmenting the considerable examination experience of other judges. This Board is well positioned to handle the new contested cases. We at the USPTO are pleased to have fresh viewpoints and diverse experiences as we take on the challenges of the AIA.

We are hard at work on the final rules concerning post grant procedures as we implement and fulfill Congress’ intent with the AIA. The need to provide an efficient way for the Board to reconsider granted patents is an important feature of the new law. The process desired by Congress is one that is efficient and cost-effective, and relies on expertise within the Agency to provide high-quality decisions. Congress also specifically limited the length of these new proceedings to 12 months, with an additional six months in exceptional cases.

Our rulemaking is taking into consideration a wide variety of information, input, and experience. The experience and procedures used in Federal District Court litigation were considered as well as the experience and procedures in the CRU. We studied procedures used by other administrative agencies, such as the Board of Veterans’ Appeals, and the International Trade Commission. We actively engaged the user community in the rulemaking process. We discussed a wide range of procedures and recommendations from a variety of sources including associations, corporations, law firms and individuals.

The Board also has some direct experience in handling contested cases. Interference practice has a long history within the Agency, and the Agency evaluated those procedures in order to identify best practices. I have practiced in the interference area for many years, and watched the development of efficient trial proceedings take root at the Board. About 15 to 20 years ago, interferences took approximately four to seven years, costing stakeholders time while adding uncertainty. They allowed for dilatory practices, wasteful motions, and procedural traps. The process eventually was modified—much to its benefit—and is now a trial-like proceeding, streamlined by careful involvement of judges. The average interference today is completed in less than a year, approximately 11 months. We in the practice learned to trust the involvement of the judges in shepherding proceedings to a quick and efficient conclusion.

The team working on the rules consists of individuals with a balanced set of viewpoints. The Director, myself, and the Chief and Vice Chief of the Board have all practiced in firm and corporate settings, and are well aware of the needs and concerns of external stakeholders. We do not wish to retain any of the elements of an overly complex interference practice. We have started from scratch and take a fresh look in our rulemaking.

Post-AIA proceedings will be very different from reexamination proceedings or interferences. First, they must be completed within a year, which means streamlining. There will be no examination, no counts, no determination of priority, no complex procedures of inter partes reexamination, and no establishing priority of invention. Complex inter partes reexamination and interference practices will not return. We envision reaping the benefits of a straightforward trial proceeding, implemented by experienced judges, resulting in a fair and efficient proceeding.

The user community has provided diverse and, at times, contradictory recommendations on aspects of the rule implementation. We are diligently taking this information into consideration as we draft procedures that will provide high quality decisions that are clear and predictable. We aspire to present final rules which will accomplish Congress’ intent of efficiency and cost-effectiveness within a 12-month window. I appreciate the interest and helpful input of the entire user community.

Focusing on Funding Continuity

2012-05-14T11:59:15-04:00

As USPTO continues to work toward improving effectiveness, a key to maintaining progress will be financial stability, predictability, and sustainability.

Towards this end, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) authorized a 15 percent surcharge on most patent fees, which went into effect on September 26, 2011. The AIA also entrusted the USPTO with the responsibility to set fees through regulation— a new authority that the Office, in collaboration with our stakeholders, is working to put in place in the coming months. Our target is to have a new fee schedule operational by the middle of FY 2013.

In addition to these in-process AIA fee adjustments, the USPTO recently published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that proposes an increase to statutory fees based on inflation as of October 1, 2012, using the Consumer Price Index. CPI adjustments have routinely been implemented in the past—generally on an annual basis—to help the Office adjust to the higher costs of doing business resulting from increases in the price of products and services. Given this mix, it is quite understandable that I am sometimes asked why we need the additional fee increase, given the 15 percent surcharge already in place and plans to implement a revised fee schedule by the first quarter of next year.

The answer is: leveling, cash flow, continuity -- much like with any large enterprise. Think of the CPI adjustment as ensuring “bridge funds.” This planned CPI adjustment will provide a small but needed increase in funding, allowing the USPTO to continue reducing the backlog and pendency until our new fee schedule--which will provide long-term financial resources--is in place.

An adequately funded USPTO will optimize the administration of the U.S. intellectual property system, moving your innovative ideas to the marketplace more quickly, while creating and sustaining U.S. jobs and enhancing the health and living standards of Americans and indeed people everywhere around the globe.

USPTO Exhibit on Steve Jobs Opens at Smithsonian

2012-05-11T08:36:22-04:00

If you missed our wonderful exhibit—The Patents and Trademarks of Steve Jobs: Art and Technology that Changed the World—while it was on display several months ago here at the USPTO campus, you now have another chance. This exhibit, which commemorates the far-reaching impact of Steve Jobs’ innovation on our daily lives, opens today at the Smithsonian Institution. Head to the concourse of the Smithsonian’s Ripley Center, and you’ll see displays of the more than 300 patents that bear the name of the iconic innovator, along with many of the trademarks that have given Apple its instantly recognizable identity around the world. You’ll gain insights into the visionary commitment Jobs gave to each of the products and designs he influenced during his time with Apple, the company he co-founded at the age of 21 with his friend and fellow computer enthusiast Steve Wozniak. You might also be interested to know that on May 2nd, Jobs was inducted posthumously into the National Inventors Hall of Fame at a dinner held in the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Portrait Gallery, the historic home of the USPTO. The Patents and Trademarks of Steve Jobs: Art and Technology that Changed the World runs through July 8th.

GAO a Helpful Partner on AIA Implementation

2012-05-10T10:01:23-04:00

USPTO is making it a major focus to actively engage and have regular conversations with our stakeholders on a host of issues. Look no further than how we have managed the rulemaking process to implement the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA), including – for the first time in the Agency’s history – proposing and setting a new fee schedule.

Recently, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report that looked at USPTO’s user fee design. GAO’s report is quite positive. The report found that the USPTO has a robust fee review process in place, and applauded our efforts to manage funding uncertainty by creating an operating reserve, borrowing from a practice widely used in industry. The report also notes that the USPTO has a strong stakeholder communication base on which to build, assisting us in our ongoing pursuit of transparency and two-way communication.

The report did, however, note opportunities to ensure superior implementation going forward, opportunities we have already begun pursuing. Because the Office has not yet issued a notice of proposed rulemaking for setting fees under section 10 of the AIA, the findings are based largely upon past practices going back several years. Since we are just now reaching the mid-point for our fee-setting process, and the “new” information available to GAO was gathered very early in the process, the report comes at a great time for us to gain value going forward. As such, the report serves as a guide to help the Office successfully carry out the authorities entrusted to it, and not as a comprehensive review of the entire fee setting process.

The report recommends that the USPTO continue to build upon the communication successes we have already achieved, by enhancing transparency through providing detailed accounting of program costs as well as communicating clearly our policy choices. This is a fair recommendation, especially considering the GAO’s review and conclusions were based on the high-level informational materials provided in advance of the fee setting hearings held in Alexandria and Sunnyvale in February. Enhancing transparency remains critical to our business model.

Finally, GAO encouraged us to continue building on current successes by establishing guidance and protocols for communication with the PPAC and other stakeholders regarding our fee setting process. This will help ensure consistency far into the future. We have taken this recommendation to heart, and plan to incorporate specific protocols for communication into our fee-setting process.

We welcome the guidance and assistance that GAO has provided to us in their report, and look forward to continuing this strong relationship. We’ll be looking for additional ways to engage and seek help from our stakeholder community to ensure the best possible implementation of AIA, as well as numerous other initiatives underway at PTO.

USPTO Official Honored for Public Service

2012-05-09T10:50:52-04:00

One of our stars here at the USPTO was honored this morning for her excellent work as a public servant. Senior Telework Advisor Danette Campbell is one of 33 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal finalists in the category of Management Excellence. Under Danette’s guidance, the USPTO has created a teleworking program that is a model not just for the federal government but for any employer. A full two-thirds of USPTO employees telework in some manner, which saves millions of dollars, increases productivity, and boosts employee job satisfaction and retention.

The “Sammies,” as the awards are known, is a project of the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, which honored the finalists at a breakfast today at the Ronald Reagan Building here in DC. Danette and her fellow finalists were profiled Monday in The Washington Post, and we’ve already been contacted by TV and radio outlets looking to hear Danette’s story. Of course, her story is really the story of the thousands of USPTO employees who have embraced teleworking to everyone’s benefit. We all will be pulling for Danette when they announce the winners on September 13th.

Continued Success in Improving the Global IP System

2012-05-07T12:22:48-04:00

Guest blog by Acting Administrator for Policy and External Affairs Shira Perlmutter

As fiscal year 2012 moves forward, the Office of Policy and External Affairs (OPEA) continues to make great strides toward improving the global intellectual property system. Our dedicated staff promotes the protection of U.S. intellectual property interests around the world—from the World Intellectual Property Organization, to our work with the Office of the United States Trade Representative on trade agreements, to our collaboration with other offices via the Trilateral and IP5 processes. We are engaged in initiatives across the entire spectrum of intellectual property rights focused on enhancing the contribution the intellectual property system makes to global economic and social prosperity. I wanted to take this opportunity to give you an update on some of these initiatives and point you to details and statistics found on our updated Policy and External Affairs dashboard.

One of our most important projects is the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH). The PPH is a worksharing framework designed to promote more efficient and higher quality examination, while enabling innovators to obtain patent protection more quickly and with greater certainty in multiple jurisdictions. The basic concept is that when one office determines claims to be allowable in an application, the applicant can fast-track examination in another office on a related application (filed via the Paris Convention or the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)) containing the same or similar claims.

The USPTO has PPH arrangements with 22 patent offices around the world and the PPH network continues to expand. Furthermore, improvements made to the program were launched in January of this year as PPH 2.0, which are expected to encourage increased use of the program. As of the end of the second quarter, the USPTO had received a cumulative total of 10,322 PPH requests from applicants worldwide since the program’s inception.

Another of our key activities is providing educational and training programs for foreign government officials through our Global Intellectual Property Academy (GIPA) to improve intellectual property protection and enforcement worldwide. As of the end of the second quarter of this fiscal year, GIPA had conducted 68 training programs for 3,949 participants from 79 countries.

I am proud of the work OPEA is doing to advance these important initiatives, and I look forward to reporting continued progress in the future.

BPAI: Reducing the Backlog

2012-05-03T12:25:43-04:00

The Board of Appeals and Interferences (BPAI), like other areas within the USPTO, have experienced increased growth, leading to a large backlog of ex parte appeals. With the new Post-Grant Review processes set forth in the America Invents Act (AIA) fast approaching and BPAI resources being diverted to prepare for those new proceedings, there are concerns this backlog may continue to grow. As a result of the AIA, on September 16, 2012, the BPAI will become known as the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) as it adds Post-Grant Review and inter partes review proceedings, to its current workload of ex parte appeal cases.

In recognition of this additional workload and in anticipation of the new processes beginning at the end of fiscal year 2012, we continue to look at how the USPTO can reduce this backlog. Chief Administrative Judge James Donald Smith blogged about the topic in December 2011 and he discussed streamlining the appeals process for applicants and examiners. This effort, and the new regulations resulting from it, was prompted by comments received at a USPTO public roundtable in January 2010 and a notice of proposed rulemaking in November 2010.

This is just one avenue which we are pursuing as we are continually looking for ways to improve the patents appeals process. In fact, public perception has suggested a high number of pending applications were sent to the BPAI from the Patent Technology Centers (TCs) unnecessarily. In response to this perception and because of our desire to decrease the backlog of ex parte cases, the Patent TC Directors working on a BPAI task force enlisted the help of the Office of Patent Quality Assurance (OPQA). OPQA reviewed a sample of 1,300 pending applications at the BPAI. This review was intended to determine if some of the cases most recently sent to the BPAI from the patent corps were truly ripe for appeal.

Results of this review found a low number of reviewed applications containing deficiencies that would result in them not being ready for review by the BPAI. More importantly, this information gave the patent corps the opportunity to take an in-depth look at these sample cases to identify issues where further training could be provided. Examiners recently completed mandatory training on the above new rules for the BPAI, but there is more opportunity for improvement.

As we continue to work diligently to decrease the backlog, special attention has been given to design programs to help prevent applications from being sent to the BPAI when appeal is unnecessary. Our emphasis on interviews is designed to help examiners and attorneys resolve as many issues as possible—if not allow the application—before appeal. Our Ombudsman Program is designed to assist applicants and their representatives to bring the examination back on track when the process is not working as intended, thus avoiding appeal where possible. One of our latest efforts encourages examiners to hold interviews after final and, if possible, move those applications to allowance rather than appeal.

While we work toward preventing unnecessary appeals, the BPAI is working to reduce the current ex parte backlog and to prepare for the new post-grant review and inter partes review proceedings resulting from AIA.

Our goal is two-fold, 1) to serve you as quickly as possible when you need to appeal and 2) make sure that we do everything possible to resolve issues before the appeal route is chosen.

The Role of Submission Limits in Timely Completion of Supplemental Examination

2012-04-27T10:10:45-04:00

This entry in our series on implementation of the America Invents Act (AIA) focuses on the proposed rules for supplemental examination.

The supplemental examination procedure was designed to provide patentees with a quick and decisive examination of items that were overlooked during the patent’s original prosecution. So quick in fact, that the AIA set a three-month period for us to conduct and conclude a supplemental examination after a request is filed. That’s just three months to determine if any of the items of information raise a substantial new question of patentability.

In order to meet this timeframe, we have proposed a limit of 10 items of information that a patent owner can submit to the USPTO for consideration in each request. The purpose of this limit is to strike a balance between the needs of the patent owner and the ability of the Office to timely conclude the proceeding. That said, we did not limit the number of issues that these 10 items of information can raise, nor did we limit the number of separate supplemental reexamination requests that a patentee can file.

Following publication of the proposed rules, the Office received a number of suggestions requesting us to accept more than 10 items of information in a single supplemental examination request. While we're still considering this and all of the other input we have received, I wanted to share with you the factors the Office took into consideration in proposing a limit of 10 submissions.

First, far fewer than 10 prior art documents form the basis for most inequitable conduct allegations. In fact, we are unaware of any publicly reported inequitable conduct dispute involving more than 10 items of information – if you know of one, please let us know. Second, in over 85 percent of the requests for ex parte reexamination, the requester cites 10 or fewer items for consideration by the Office. Third, the Office was very mindful of the time necessary for examiners to analyze the items of information submitted, particularly since the items are not limited to patents and printed publications, and each item may raise multiple issues.

Accordingly, limiting the number of items of information to 10 will help the USPTO establish a procedure that is not only practical, but also one enabling an examiner to fully, comprehensively, and timely analyze all submitted items of information and issues to accurately determine whether there is a substantial new question of patentability.

So, as is always the case with matters of balance, there is no definitive answer. But one thing is for sure: Congress mandated very fast action on supplemental examination. And that in turn calls for limits on what we all take on within the scope of a single proceeding.

Record Results for Trademark Pendency

2012-04-20T15:21:44-04:00

Guest blog by Commissioner for Trademarks Debbie Cohn

This month marks a record for performance by our Trademarks team. It has now been five consecutive years that first action pendency has stayed in the range of our goal to issue a first action between 2.5 and 3.5 months from filing. This record is the result of a number of factors including greater use of the systems, tools, and resources necessary to manage new application filings electronically and to manage them well. It demonstrates how electronic filing and systems have led to more consistent results in our ability to deliver top quality service. A look at our performance dashboard for the second quarter of fiscal year 2012 shows quality and timeliness to first action or disposal either meets or exceeds target goals.

Meanwhile, despite a 7 percent increase in new application filings, trademark pendency to registration continues to remain at historically low levels. Disposal pendency – the time from when an application is filed until a trademark is registered or abandoned – has been under 11 months for the past eight quarters in a row – a record due in part to the increase in electronic processing, which now comprises 75 percent of all trademark applications filed, processed and disposed.

Trademark quality shows improvement – all three indicators are better than their respective targets. Our newest indicator for evaluating quality, introduced last year, as the ‘excellent office action’ standard has been renamed ‘exceptional office action’. The name change is a better reflection of the criteria that set exceptionally high standards for evaluating an examiner’s writing, evidence, and search strategy in preparing the office action. Our evaluation of quality is an ongoing process, and we regularly use the results for improving how we work—from developing policy and training guides and manuals to reinforcing and ensuring the quality of the trademark register.

We welcome any feedback you have on how we can improve this dashboard. Simply email a comment to our dedicated mailbox for Trademarks feedback. We look forward to hearing from you.

We Mean Business About Diversity

2012-04-16T15:22:54-04:00

April is Celebrate Diversity Month, and in the spirit of this month, I want to take this opportunity to provide you with updates on various diversity initiatives underway at the USPTO.

On Tuesday, April 17, the USPTO is hosting the first-ever White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (WHIAPPI) Federal Sector Conference. The WHIAPPI conference theme is “Empowering Asian American and Pacific Islander Communities through Federal Service.” We are expecting attendance of up to 400 government employees.

Last December, I shared with you the good news about our efforts to improve the retention of patent examiners beyond their probationary period through the New Examiner Mentoring Program pilot, a voluntary, peer-based program. I am pleased to report that we will soon be kicking off an expanded pilot mentoring program through the support of the USPTO's associated affinity groups and the Patent and Trademark Office Society. The New Examiner Mentoring Program 2.0 will pair mentors with new patent examiners arriving in May. As I previously mentioned, when we look at the benefits associated with retaining examiners -- who are costly to recruit and on-board, we are quite optimistic about the pilot’s expansion.

In addition to our diversity and inclusion programs within USPTO, I want to take a moment to highlight our diversity efforts beyond the USPTO. For example, Chief Judge of the BPAI James Smith joined Deputy Director Rea at the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) Continuing Legal Education Expo in Chicago. Deputy Director Rea and Chief Judge Smith participated on discussion panels presenting to a diverse audience of IP professionals.

In addition to the MCCA, we are working on sending USPTO representatives to present at several important conferences as follows: The National Bar Association; the National Asian and Pacific American Bar Association; the National Black Chamber of Commerce; Blacks in Government National Training Conference; Out in Science, Technology & Math; the Society of Women Engineers; the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers; and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society.

In response to fiscal year 2012 hiring goals, our Office of Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity (OEEOD) has launched an important diversity hiring initiative, now underway. In advance of USPTO recruiters reaching college campuses, a member of the OEEOD contacts university engineering organizations, such as the National Society of Black Engineers or the Society of Women Engineers, to provide them with a personalized invitation to meet with our recruiters, along with our recruitment schedule. We hope that this diversity outreach will get the word out about the USPTO through diverse networks on college campuses and, in turn, encourage more students from diverse backgrounds to apply for positions at USPTO.

We can all be proud of USPTO's inclusive culture in which diversity is welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated. Enjoy this month’s theme, and celebrate diversity!

Electronic Terminal Disclaimers Now Get Immediate Approvals

2012-04-09T09:27:30-04:00

You may remember that last November USPTO launched a new feature called eTerminal Disclaimer (eTD) as an open beta. eTD enables filing of terminal disclaimers (TDs) using an electronic interface from the USPTO’s online patent-filing system, EFS-Web. eTD allows applicants to expedite the filing and decision process for terminal disclaimers and receive immediate, real-time approval if the submission requirements are met.

Based on the positive feedback we received in response to the beta, I am pleased to report that eTD is now in full production. Some 1,500 eTDs have been processed since the deployment. And eTD submissions now account for nearly 12 percent of all terminal disclaimer submissions in utility applications.

As you are probably painfully aware, historically all terminal disclaimers have either been prepared and submitted as paper documents, or submitted as electronic PDF documents through EFS-Web. In either case, the USPTO’s manual review process delayed examination of the application in which the traditional TD had been filed. In contrast, by filing an eTD, you receive an immediate, real-time answer to your petition -- normally an approval (provided the submission requirements are met). To submit the petition, you enter information directly into EFS-Web’s workflow interface for eTD. These web-based screens guide you through the process and will prompt you for the correct information quickly and easily.

Up to 20 percent of traditional terminal disclaimers have historically been disapproved as a result of errors in the submission materials. Once a traditional terminal disclaimer is disapproved, the submission process starts over again, unfortunately increasing the effort and delay encountered to complete the filing. eTD was designed to make it easier and faster for you to file a terminal disclaimer and to obtain its immediate acceptance. In addition, eTD provides users with a payment advantage. Fees are not collected until the eTD is actually accepted by the USPTO.

The eTD also represents a move forward for operational efficiency at USPTO. It allows us to reallocate resources by eliminating the time needed to review terminal disclaimers, and eliminates rework associated with non-compliant submissions.

I hope you will consider the many advantages of eTD when filing terminal disclaimers. For more details on eTD, visit the USPTO eTerminal Disclaimer resource page at http://www.uspto.gov/TerminalDisclaimer. Live assistance with any questions regarding eTD or with filing an eTD can be obtained by calling the Patent Electronic Business Center at 866-217-9197 (toll free) or sending an email to EBC@uspto.gov.

Thanks as always for picking up and using these new programs, and keep the input coming!

Realignment in the Office of the Commissioner for Patents Helps to Improve Efficiency

2012-03-26T13:11:13-04:00

Guest blog by USPTO Commissioner for Patents Peggy Focarino

One of my challenges as Commissioner for Patents is providing my senior leadership team with the tools and flexibility they need to manage a productive and growing workforce. As the USPTO moves forward with implementing the America Invents Act and our Strategic Plan, we continue to invest heavily in organizational growth. In 2011 alone, the patent organization, which comprises nearly 70% of the USPTO’s more than 10,000 employees, hired over 800 new patent examiners. Substantial growth will also occur in 2012, as we are planning to hire 1,500 new patent examiners. This hiring initiative is the backbone of our goal to significantly reduce the backlog of patent applications and decrease the pendency to an average of ten months for first actions.

To manage the necessary increase of our workforce, I announced a realignment within the senior leadership team in the Office of the Commissioner for Patents. Specifically, three new deputy commissioner positions have been created in an effort to continue to build the strength of the senior leadership team and maximize their contributions. The new positions consist of a Deputy Commissioner for Patent Operations, a Deputy Commissioner for Patent Examination Policy, and a Deputy Commissioner for Patent Administration, to be filled by Andrew Faile, Drew Hirshfeld and Bruce Kisliuk, respectively. All three bring unique skills to their respective positions and form a strong and well-balanced team at the Deputy Commissioner level.

As the new Deputy Commissioner for Patent Operations, Andrew Faile will be responsible for all patent examining functions in the nine Patent Technology Centers, the Office of Patent Training and the Central Reexamination Unit. Andy was the Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Patent Operations for the Electrical Discipline and has over 20 years of experience in patent examining and operations management. He first joined the USPTO in 1989 as a patent examiner in the areas of cellular telephony, radio frequency communications, and cable television. In 1994, he earned an examiner master’s rating in telecommunications. Recently, Andy served on a joint management/union task force in charge of modernizing the examiner production system. He was awarded the Department of Commerce Silver Medal for his work on the task force.

Drew Hirshfeld will serve as the Deputy Commissioner for Patent Examination Policy. In his new position, Drew will be responsible for providing staff assistance in establishing patent examination policy standards for the Commissioner for Patents. The Deputy Commissioner for Patent Examination Policy will direct the activities of the USPTO’s Office of Petitions, Office of Patent Legal Administration, Office of Patent Cooperation Treaty Legal Administration, and the Office of Patent Quality Assurance. As the current Associate Commissioner for Patent Examination Policy, Drew is the authority on patent laws, rules, and examining practice and procedure. He joined the USPTO in 1994 as a patent examiner, became a supervisory patent examiner in 2001, and was promoted to the Senior Executive Service in 2008 as a Group Director in Technology Center 2100, Computer Architecture and Software. Drew has also served as the chief of staff to the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO.

The Deputy Commissioner for Patent Administration will be Bruce Kisliuk. This new position will act as a single point of oversight for resources and planning, information management and innovation development. Since 2008, Bruce has been the Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Patent Operations for Mechanical and Chemical Disciplines. He joined the USPTO in 1983 after working as an engineer for the Gulf Oil Corporation. In 1993, Bruce received the Department of Commerce Bronze Medal for individual achievement. In addition, he has also been a member of two different teams that received the Department of Commerce Silver Medal for Nanotechnology-related Patent Examining Initiatives (2007) and Patent Examiner Count System Initiatives (2010).

I am looking forward to working with Andy, Drew and Bruce as we continue to move forward in implementing our Strategic Plan. Each of them possesses the expertise necessary to lead a growing and dynamic patent organization in the 21st century. With its new leadership alignment, the USPTO will be well-positioned to meet its strategic goals and ensure that American innovation thrives.

Recruiting for Innovation

2012-03-22T13:53:40-04:00

Guest Blog by USPTO Chief Administrative Officer Patricia Richter

USPTO is on the move. The enactment of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act has allowed the USPTO to launch several transformative initiatives that are not only making it easier for businesses to navigate the patenting and trademark processes—but also helping the U.S. usher groundbreaking innovations to the marketplace, faster. Inherent in the realization of this goal is our ability to attract and retain top talent.

The agency is actively seeking exceptional individuals for patent examiner positions. We’re looking for individuals who hold (or will within the next 12 months) engineering and science degrees in a variety of disciplines. We are also seeking candidates who have accredited state law degrees and experience with intellectual property law. As we all know, a career as a patent examiner at the USPTO is one where we can—quite literally—imagine the possibilities. We represent one of the world’s largest and most sought-after patent systems, conducting research and interacting with applicants who are working on inventive, modern breakthroughs. And we offer a benefits package that is highly competitive with strong salaries, promotion potential, and access to bonus programs, paid overtime, top notch healthcare and retirement plans. Furthermore, we frequently hear positive comments on the work/life balance we achieve here, with access to telework, alternative work schedules, world-class fitness centers and onsite childcare—elements that are hard to put a price on.

Meanwhile, the agency has a goal to hire 10 percent of its total recruits from our nation’s veteran and transitioning military servicemember population. Veterans who transition into the civilian workforce have a strong track record of success at USPTO, with robust training and instruction and access to a USPTO Military Association made up of individuals who can help mentor you as you grow.

Additionally, we’re excited to open our first satellite office in Detroit, Michigan in July of this year. This is a great opportunity for new patent examiners to be a pioneering presence in the heart of America’s manufacturing sector. (Don't forget our Open House event in Detroit this Saturday!) While the big recruitment push is focused primarily on patent examiners, there are other exciting opportunities for IT professionals, trademark attorneys, and administrative patent judges, just to name a few.

Just like in our daily, mission-related work, we’re looking for ways to be innovative in our recruitment efforts as well. If you have ideas on how we can more effectively target exceptional candidates, we’d love to know. Please share them in the comments section below. And you can learn more about a career with the USPTO and see our job vacancies at USPTOcareers.gov.

Increased Fees v. Operational Efficiencies

2012-03-20T14:16:12-04:00

Returning to our series on America Invents Act (AIA) implementation, I’d like to focus today on an aspect of USPTO fee-setting. During a number of our recent outreach events on the USPTO’s fee-setting proposal, some stakeholders have taken the view—to caricature it slightly—that the USPTO does not need to increase fees; it needs to get more efficient.

We could not agree more on the importance of improving efficiency at the USPTO. During the last three years, we have made many improvements aimed squarely at improving efficiency. To name a few, we’ve implemented a new count system, revised examiner performance plans, established a first action interview pilot, provided training and incentives to substantially increase interviews overall, instituted the Patents Ombudsman Program, reengineered our Patent Cooperation Treaty processing, reengineered our reexamination processing, introduced important IT improvements including e-petitions, a reengineered MPEP/TMEP, and modern computing platforms, as well as expanded our Patent Prosecution Highway and other work-sharing programs to avoid duplication of efforts with international IP offices.

And we have much more coming. Many additional process improvements have been identified through our patents reengineering effort, with work already underway to improve legacy IT systems and develop new 21st century systems and processes. These improvements, coupled with the efficiency elements of the AIA such as Track One accelerated examination, will assure continued efficiency gains into the future. In fact, we will never be done looking for ways to improve efficiency, and we will never be complacent about our efficiency.

But attempting to draw a corollary between fee-setting and speculation about the possible impact of potential future efficiency gains is difficult without the benefit of hindsight. As we have outlined in our fee proposal, our fees must be set in a manner that enables us to continue investing in reducing the backlog and improving all other areas of our agency. Our experience also reminds us that implementing improvements frequently causes short term disruptions, and likely won't immediately translate into efficiencies. Anyone who runs a business will tell you that productivity investments often take years to pay off.

Moreover, my judgment as the steward of this agency is that I cannot proceed with a funding model that assumes further efficiency gains, especially if we have not yet achieved them. It places our agency at risk, and is just not right for our employees or for our stakeholders.

The responsible approach is to rely on our experience and current cost model, factoring in the efficiency gains we have achieved to date, but not speculating about possible future gains. This approach of using current costs as a basis for setting prices is the common practice among businesses, and follows the sound advice of the accounting, finance, and economics professions.

Then the question becomes the one asked in our fee proposal: does the U.S. innovation community want us to continue investing to quickly reduce the backlog and fully capture the promise of the AIA, or does it want us to back off a bit and accept a longer trajectory to reducing the backlog, and a higher level of risk relative to future funding downturns? The answer will ultimately have consequences for the kinds of efficiencies the agency is able to realize in the future, and what level of services the USPTO can deliver in years to come.

National Export Initiative Second Anniversary

2012-03-12T16:34:36-04:00

This week marks the second anniversary of the National Export Initiative (NEI), established by President Obama with the ambitious goal of doubling U.S. exports by 2014. The United States Patent and Trademark Office plays an important role in three of the initiative’s central efforts: removing barriers for American businesses and expanding their access to foreign markets, providing global education and training to better enforce trade rules, and promoting trade and exports.

Removing Barriers and Expanding Access

The USPTO has worked hard to reduce the amount of time it takes to get a new product or technology from the lab to the market, where it can spawn new industries, generate sales, and create new jobs. An important part of that process takes place at the USPTO, where examiners study the novelty of patent applications to ensure that a proposed intellectual property (IP) is suitably unique and therefore demands the legal protection of a U.S. patent. Since the establishment of the NEI, our agency has implemented several major initiatives to make that examination process faster and more efficient:

1) Following passage of the America Invents Act, the USPTO began an accelerated examination program known as Track One that allows businesses of all sizes to bring their technologies to the marketplace faster and more efficiently than ever before—offering decisions on patent applications in under 12 months, and 50% discounts for small enterprises using the option. Since its inception we’ve received 2,311 patent applications and more than 713 entrepreneurs have taken advantage of those discounts. During that time we completed 1,196 first office actions in an average of 35.8 days and issued a total of 14 completed patents.

2) The First Action Interview program encourages applicants to meet with examiners earlier on to work through potential issues and bring greater certainty to a product’s IP rights. To date about 2,900 innovators have benefitted from this kind of direct communication with the USPTO. The “first action allowance rate” (the average rate of applications initially determined to be patentable) for those who use the program is 24.9%, a significant improvement over the 11% chance for applicants not using the program and a strong boost to getting new ideas and innovations into development and the marketplace.

3) Under our Green Tech pilot program, nearly 3,500 patent applications addressing 21st-century energy and environmental challenges were fast-tracked and reviewed in about 10 months. With about 890 U.S. patents issued to date, the program is an important step forward in expanding our “green-collar” economy—one of President Obama’s signature goals—and making the United States a responsible world citizen and exporter of renewable energy technologies.

4) Additionally, a series of international work-sharing agreements called the Patent Prosecution Highway has helped more than 9,300 patent applications receive IP protections in 22 different countries—faster and at a lower cost. This kind of international collaboration is especially important in breaking down the legal barriers that exist for smaller companies trying to export their products into a global economy.

Education and Training on Enforcement of Trade Rules

The USPTO places a high priority on the effective enforcement of IP rights throughout the world and is working to enforce global trade rules on a number of fronts. Through our IP Attaché Program we have placed seven IP attachés in U.S. embassies throughout the world—two in Geneva, one in Thailand, one in Brazil, one in India and two in China—to improve regional IP enforcement efforts for American businesses competing abroad. The Attachés have worked to introduce legislation in countries to strengthen criminal IP laws and have ensured that governments maintain patent protection for certain inventions in U.S.-heavy export areas. The ongoing implementation of country-specific action plans by our IP Attachés is a key step towards the NEI’s goal of enforcing trade rules.

The USPTO also initiated the Strategy for Targeting Organized Piracy (STOP). In addition to targeting the criminal enterprises responsible for counterfeiting and piracy, STOP assists U.S. businesses in recognizing, protecting, and enforcing their IP rights abroad through a one-stop hotline and resource center, and through numerous outreach and education events.

We are also working with counterpart offices in Europe and Japan on the Trilateral Identification Project, a harmonized system that simplifies the process for obtaining trademark registrations in multiple jurisdictions and makes it easier for businesses to protect their brands worldwide. To date there are about 13,000 entries, with approximately 50 to 100 new entries added per month. The Russian Federation, South Korea, Mexico, the Philippines, Canada, and Singapore have all recently signed on to the project. By creating greater consistency in trademark registration practices, this USPTO-led effort is helping promote a set of international “best-practices” for regulating trademark law and reduces the threat of “copycat brands” that imitate American products.

In addition, we are establishing an Enforcement Working Group to increase inter-departmental collaboration in effectively enforcing trade rules abroad. And by partnering with the International Trade Administration (ITA), we’re helping build a set of metrics that tracks how effectively trade rules are being followed abroad, and collaborating to implement programs that protect IP for American businesses while facilitating their expansion into foreign markets.

Promoting Trade

To promote trade, the USPTO operates a number of training programs to bring awareness and tools to businesses seeking to engage overseas markets. Through the Trademark Assistance Center we provide general information about the U.S. trademark registration process and respond to inquiries about the status of trademark applications and registrations abroad. And in 2012, our agency is instituting an initiative to educate Minority Business Development Agency Centers through 15 outreach events that train businesses on how to navigate the IP terrain in China—with the goal of helping minority American businesses get their products into the fastest-growing consumer market in the world.

What does this litany of programs mean to American citizens and taxpayers who are not inventors or entrepreneurs? It means that the USPTO—one of only two fee-funded agencies in the U.S. government��is delivering real and measurable results in our economic recovery. Exporting the fruits of American innovation from the lab to the global marketplace faster, more efficiently and with greater clarity means more new products, more profits for entrepreneurs, and more employees they can afford to hire. At the same time, stronger protection for their brands and products overseas multiplies the effect—more profits, more jobs, and more economic growth.

The NEI is an ambitious and epic undertaking worthy of our nation’s greatness, and the men and women of the USPTO are working hard on behalf of U.S. citizens to make sure it succeeds—and succeed it will.

Comparing USPTO's New Post-Grant Processes and Associated Costs to EPO's

2012-03-08T12:26:17-05:00

This is the first in a series of blogs we'll use to explore aspects of USPTO's proposed rules implementing the America Invents Act (AIA). We'll focus on aspects of our proposed rules that have attracted questions during our recent roadshows and other outreach efforts.

This first installment will consider our new post-grant review system. Some practitioners have raised a legitimate question: Why will the new post-grant procedures mandated by the AIA cost parties more than European Patent Office (EPO) oppositions? While the new U.S. post-grant processes and the existing EPO opposition procedure (which has a first-stage in the Opposition Division and a second-stage before the Appeals Board) are each “post-grant processes,” there are a number of important, fundamental differences. And these differences, in turn, drive major differences in cost.

But before getting to comparisons/contrasts, it is important to note that this blog is not about declaring that the new U.S. system is either better or worse than European opposition practice. It is just different. And the EPO opposition system does an excellent job, well-suited to the policy objectives and practice environment in which it operates.

Generally, EPO opposition (both stages) is akin to a second, participatory, after-grant examination, whereas U.S. post-grant processes are more similar to litigation than examination. The fundamental differences, which arise from the presence of this litigation characteristic in AIA proceedings, include, for example, who it is that conducts the proceeding and the final effect of the decision.

Specifically, EPO oppositions are conducted by specially appointed examiners; do not allow for discovery; and no estoppel is imposed after an unsuccessful challenge. In contrast, U.S. AIA post-grant processes will be conducted by patent judges, who will officiate over processes with substantial discovery, with estoppels to be imposed upon final written decisions.

Moreover, EPO proceedings operate on a much different time scale than Congress has mandated for U.S. AIA post-grant proceedings. For example, it is our understanding that the first stage EPO proceedings typically take 18 months to three years for an orally-announced decision, after which parties can wait another six months for written decisions. An appeal within the EPO adds another two to three years to the overall pendency of a proceeding. In contrast, the AIA requires the USPTO to promulgate rules to ensure that U.S. post-grant processes are concluded within one year of institution, with up to six additional months for good cause. And we are trying hard to design our USPTO rules implementing AIA to ensure virtually all of our post-grant processes complete within that one year period.

Unsurprisingly, very different processes lead to very different cost structures. As to the fees charged to request a post-grant proceeding, the proposed fees for the U.S. post-grant proceedings are substantially higher than those charged for EPO oppositions. This in part reflects the very different nature of the processes -- it will cost more to run the process required by the AIA.

But it also reflects a policy preference. While EPO oppositions are subsidized, the proposed U.S. fees reflect a cost-recovery model charged directly to the requestor, without utilizing subsidies paid by patent applicants or other service requestors. This is no accident -- it is intended to implement the statutory language stating that post-grant process fees will be established with reference to the cost of conducting the processes. Congress chose to use this language uniquely for the post-grant provisions of AIA. While it does not on its face require us to charge at a strict cost-recovery level, clearly it was meant to guide USPTO in determining where to set our applicable fees.

So, the new U.S. post-grant procedures are quite different from Europe's opposition procedure; and our policy backdrop is different; so our fee proposals are different. But, as with all of our fee proposals, we are eager for input from our stakeholders, and take seriously the questions practitioners have raised regarding how we arrived at the cost recovery figures we have published. So keep the comments coming, and we will do our best to finally set fees as fairly as possible to all users of the U.S. patent system.

Policy and External Affairs Dashboard Overview

2012-03-06T16:52:23-05:00

Guest blog by Acting Administrator for Policy and External Affairs Shira Perlmutter

Recently I joined the USPTO as Acting Administrator for Policy and External Affairs. In this role I lead the Office of Policy and External Affairs (OPEA) and serve as a policy advisor to Director Kappos and Deputy Director Rea on all domestic and international IP policy-related issues. OPEA addresses a broad range of policy matters that include congressional leadership and legislative engagement, economic analysis, administration of the IP Attaché Program, as well as education and training, as carried out under the Global Intellectual Property Academy (GIPA).

In keeping with the USPTO’s tradition of information sharing and transparency, I am delighted to share our first quarter statistics for FY 2012 on the Policy and External Affairs dashboard. Important metrics we track regarding international worksharing and global outreach include the number of cases filed under the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) and the USPTO Patent Cooperation Treaty – Patent Prosecution Highway (PCT-PPH), as well as the number of programs conducted, officials trained, and countries represented in GIPA.

Because we believe collaboration with other countries results in more efficient global intellectual property systems, we are strong proponents of worksharing initiatives to help address global patent backlogs. During this first quarter of 2012, the cumulative number of all PPH requests filed with the USPTO reached 8,976 cases.

Educational programs are also instrumental in our efforts to strengthen intellectual property protection and enforcement worldwide. Through GIPA programs, foreign officials discuss international IP obligations and norms, and study the U.S. model of protecting and enforcing IP rights in a collaborative learning environment. Last quarter, GIPA conducted 47 training programs for 2,142 participants from 45 countries.

Having just wrapped up my first months with OPEA, I am impressed by the wealth of expertise this office provides on an array of diverse domestic and international IP issues. I look forward to working with USPTO leadership and stakeholders in our efforts to advance today’s critical IP policy priorities, and I welcome your thoughts and comments.

January Patents Dashboard Review

2012-03-05T16:30:44-05:00

Guest blog by USPTO Commissioner for Patents Peggy Focarino

The Patents Dashboard for the month of January has been released and is posted on our website and I am pleased to report on our status.

First Office Action Pendency continued to decrease from an average of 23.6 months in December to 22.8 months in January. Additionally, the Unexamined Patent Application Backlog decreased from 662,457 to 657,378 over the same period. These trends appear to be partly the result of success through our continuing Clearing the Oldest Patent Applications (COPA) initiative, which was implemented in fiscal year 2011.

Our success at reducing the backlog of oldest cases did contribute to a minimal increase in Traditional Total Pendency, from an average of 33.8 months in December to 33.9 months in January, but we expect this to be temporary.

At the same time, our focus on high-quality patent examination continues to show positive results. The Quality Composite Score, which is composed of seven individual metrics all shown on the Dashboard, has increased from 35.2 in December to 43.9 in January.

Furthermore, FY 2012 cumulative Actions per Disposal through January were 2.53. This rate is slightly higher than the FY 2011 rate (2.51), but remains under the high of 2.91 for FY 2008. The cumulative fiscal year Utility, Plant, and Reissue (UPR) Allowance Rate in January was 49%, a 3.8% increase from this time last year. This increase is promising considering the efforts we have taken to further encourage cooperation between patent examiners and applicants on compact prosecution and early issue resolution.

This month, I would also like to highlight the Forward-Looking First Action Pendency metric. This metric is an estimate of the average number of months it would take, for an application filed at a given date, to receive a first office action under current and projected workloads. In January, the estimate was 17.1 months, which is a decrease from 17.5 months in December. This positive trend reflects a combination of efforts at all levels of the organization, and we hope see it continue. Applicants and practitioners can use this metric to get an idea of when they can expect a first office action to be issued if they file a case at that given time. This number is considerably lower than our current First Action Pendency and is good gauge of where we are going in the future.

I am very proud of the progress we are making towards our Strategic Plan goals to reduce patent pendency and the backlog of unexamined patent applications. I look forward to sharing more of our success in the future and, as always, welcome your comments.

In Celebration of Women Entrepreneurs

2012-02-29T17:34:44-05:00

Guest blog by Deputy Director Teresa Stanek Rea

It was about one year ago that I was appointed Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). When I started working here last March one of my first charges was to give opening remarks at the 1st Annual Women’s Entrepreneurship Symposium co-hosted by the USPTO and the United States Women's Chamber of Commerce (USWCC). At the event, I had the pleasure of meeting U.S. Senator Mary L. Landrieu (D-La.), chair of the Senate’s Small Business Committee, who served as the symposium’s keynote speaker. What an amazing way to begin my journey here at the USPTO!

Now, one year later, I am excited to be able to blog about some of the special activities that are happening for Women’s History Month this year. To kick off the month, the USPTO and the National Women’s Business Council (NWBC) will be paying tribute to women whose ingenuity and inventions have improved our lives. "Women Entrepreneurs: Celebrating the Past, Inventing the Future," is being held March 1 in the USPTO’s Madison building auditorium in Alexandria, Va., and is open to the public. The event will highlight the passage of the America Invents Act and one provision specifically that allows the USPTO to begin tracking the gender of patent applicants.

Tracking the gender of patent applicants is of particular interest to NWBC, because they recently commissioned a comprehensive study on women who applied for and received patents or trademarks over the last 35 years. The results of this study will be released at the March 1 event, but preliminary findings already indicate that the number of women obtaining patents has accelerated in recent years. The largest spike came in 2010, when 22,984 patents were granted to women, a 35 percent jump over the previous year.

Meanwhile, a new exhibit will be opening from our friends from the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame (NIHF) on “Feminine Ingenuity – How Women Inventors are Changing our World.” The exhibit highlights how women inventors have changed our world. It features 19 women inductees of the NIHF and their significant innovations that have changed the way we work and live.

Later in the month in Shreveport, Louisiana, the USPTO will sponsor its 2nd Annual Women’s Entrepreneur Symposium. The symposium provides opportunity to learn about patents and trademarks, get tips from experienced inventors, as well as gather important information on how to start or grow a business in the 21st century. It will focus on women entrepreneurs, the importance of IP protection for their innovations, and how to leverage economic opportunities for women-owned businesses. Agenda topics will include IP in the global marketplace, strategies to leverage IP assets, accessing financial resources, driving business growth by leveraging business relationships, and federal contracting. The conference will be held March 25 - 26 and Senator Landrieu will participate once again.

There are also more intimate events that may be of interest to you. On March 3, the USPTO is partnering with the Smithsonian Institution to present a Family Day program entitled “Women’s History Month: A Celebration of Innovation and Invention.” The program will be held in the Kogod Courtyard of the National Portrait Gallery, the building that once was the home of the USPTO, and will feature musical performances, historical interpretations, and an inventors’ corner with hands-on art, science, and engineering activities.

On March 10, the USPTO will host a panel discussion of the Girl Scout Research Institute Generation STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) report that was released in February. We are doing this in collaboration with the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital and the Mid Atlantic Girls Collaborative (MAGIC) organization. The event will include volunteers, leaders, teen girls, community partners, and others in the GSUSA STEM network. And on March 12, the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouts, two local Brownie troops will be coming to the museum and the USPTO for a visit to see the Women’s History Month display and conduct an experiment in connection with earning their Inventor’s Badge.

It should be an exciting month at the USPTO and as a scientist and a patent attorney, I am glad to see all these activities celebrating women involved in STEM activities. I hope you will join me in celebrating Women’s History Month.

Supporting IP: A Global Challenge and Responsibility

2012-02-24T14:17:51-05:00

Guest blog by Deputy Director Teresa Stanek Rea

As some of you may know, USPTO’s responsibilities under the American Inventor’s Protection Act (AIPA) include advising the president and other federal agencies on international intellectual property matters. AIPA also empowers USPTO to conduct programs and exchanges regarding international intellectual property law. With a population of approximately 1.2 billion and an economy that grew more than 7% last year, India is an exciting place for U.S. companies to do business. So to further USPTO’s international role, last month I addressed audiences of Indian government officials, industry and academia.

After a bit of rest from a 14-hour flight and getting used to the time difference, I delivered a keynote address at the Global Intellectual Property Convention (GIPC) and then a lecture at Delhi University Law School on the America Invents Act (AIA). As with previous trips, I used my time abroad to spread the word on how the AIA has brought the U.S. patent system into the 21^st century by, among other things, encouraging innovation and job creation, improving patent quality, and reducing backlogs. Our office hopes that by spreading the word on the benefits of AIA, we can encourage countries like India to include a micro entity fee and other provisions similar to the AIA in their own patent act, which will benefit U.S. applicants.

Not only did I have the opportunity to educate Indians on AIA, but I also delivered a presentation on the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) at the GIPC. The presentation explained the PPH and its benefits, and it was well received by the audience.

I also took this opportunity to meet with the Indian Patent Office and Indian practitioners to discuss compulsory licensing. This topic is of great interest to U.S. companies and the Indian government is considering whether to grant one or more compulsory licenses to Indian companies. The United States believes that compulsory licenses should only be granted in the rarest of circumstances. We also believe that the patent provides strong incentives for innovation.

While copyright is typically not my realm of expertise, as the Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, I have a responsibility to inform, educate and advise on all forms of intellectual property, so while in New Delhi, we met with the Indian Copyright Registrar to discuss India’s draft copyright bill. We are hoping to see the passage of an Indian copyright bill that will implement the WIPO Internet Treaties in order to adapt Indian copyright law to the digital age.
Of interest to examiners would be enhanced cooperation on India’s Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL). I met with the Indian Counsel of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to discuss expanding the use of TKDL, a database of traditional knowledge that the Indian government has made available to USPTO patent examiners. We plan to host several CSIR trainers at USPTO this spring to discuss the TKDL with examiners and other agency staff.

The trip allowed me to exchange information about the U.S. and Indian IP systems and to reinforce USPTO’s strong interest in working with the government of India to achieve mutually beneficial goals through strong intellectual property regimes.

Finding America's Top Innovators

2012-02-17T17:12:27-05:00

Throughout history, innovation has been the driving force behind improving the human condition. Creative minds in areas as diverse as medicine, transportation, agriculture, energy and computer science have developed and delivered new technologies to better the lives of generation after generation.

The United States, in its law and culture, has recognized the importance of innovation from its earliest days. The Constitution directly emphasizes the promotion of “science and useful arts.” New and advanced technologies are a source of national pride, and innovators are honored for their achievements.

Since 1985, presidents of the United States have formally recognized America’s creative pioneers by awarding them the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest honor that can be attained for making contributions to America's competitiveness, standard of living, and quality of life through advances in what the Framers called “the useful arts.”

Steve Wozniak, who, with Steve Jobs, was awarded one of the first Medals, had this to say of the honor: “The National Medal of Technology hits at the sort of science and development that really changes life for Americans. It represents not only great scientific breakthroughs in technology areas (and a great deal of sweat) but also the importance of such breakthroughs in an economic sense. These are the technologies that really change how we live and lead to higher quality lives.”

In keeping with this tradition of recognition, and to encourage future progress, the USPTO now seeks nominations for the 2012 National Medal of Technology and Innovation. Nominees will be judged on the basis of how their contributions to the nation’s economic, environmental and social well-being have advanced the development and commercialization of technological products, processes and concepts, technological innovation, and the strengthening of the nation’s technological work force.

Anyone can make a nomination for the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by submitting the nomination form and six letters of support at www.uspto.gov/about/nmti/guidelines.jsp. However, the deadline is fast approaching; nominations will close on March 31, 2012.

In Celebration of Black History

2012-02-13T09:15:25-05:00

Every year, Black History Month provides a golden opportunity for employees of the United States Patent and Trademark Office to remember and honor the invaluable contributions African-Americans have made, and continue to make, to the success of the American Experiment—the proposition, to use President Lincoln’s famous words, “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Among those to whom we owe our nation’s success are a number of innovative African-Americans who distinguished themselves in the field of intellectual property, even before the American Civil War and Emancipation. Although slaves were prohibited from receiving patents on their inventions in the antebellum period, free black inventors were not. Thomas L. Jennings, born in 1791, was 30 when he received a patent for a dry-cleaning process, making him what historians believe was the first black inventor to receive a patent. Jennings’s income went mostly to his abolitionist activities, and in 1831 he became assistant secretary for the First Annual Convention of the People of Color in Philadelphia.

Judy W. Reed patented a hand-operated machine for kneading and rolling dough. She was the first known African-American woman to obtain a patent. Granville T. Woods invented more than a dozen devices to improve electric railway cars and many more for controlling the flow of electricity. George Washington Carver developed about 100 products made from peanuts, including cosmetics, dyes, paints, plastics, gasoline, and nitroglycerin. Madame C. J. Walker and Marjorie Joyner revolutionized the hair care and cosmetics industry through their innovations.

Since the 1830s, when Anthony Bowen became the first black patent clerk, thousands of African-Americans have served at the USPTO, including Henry Baker, an assistant patent examiner who was dedicated to uncovering and publicizing the contributions of black inventors. Around 1900, the patent office conducted a survey to gather information about black inventors and their inventions. Letters were sent to patent attorneys, company presidents, newspaper editors, and prominent African-Americans. Baker recorded the replies and his research provided the information used to select black inventions for exhibition at the World’s Fair in Chicago and the Southern Exposition in Atlanta.

Today, approximately 22 percent of USPTO employees are African-American. Sometime this year the USPTO will cross an historic threshold, employing more than 1,000 African-American scientists and engineers.

One of these truly exceptional employees is Patricia Carter Sluby: a freelance writer, registered patent agent, lecturer, past president of the National Intellectual Property Law Association, and a former primary patent examiner. She received a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Virginia Union University, pursued graduate studies at Fisk and American universities, and worked as a chemist at the Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory of the U.S. Geological Survey before becoming a patent examiner in the fields of chemistry and chemical engineering. From 1979 to 1980, while Patricia was a Science and Technology Fellow for the Commerce Department, she drafted a bill (H.R. 6735) on the staff of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Domestic Monetary Policy Subcommittee. She was also a technical advisor on the independent film, From Dreams to Reality: A Tribute to Minority Inventors, and has received numerous awards, including the Norbert Rillieux Presidential Award from the National Patent Law Association, the Employee of the Year award from the Commerce Department for her outstanding contributions to Minority Enterprise, the USPTO’s Equal Employment Opportunity Award, and the Bronze Medal Award for superior government service.

As a primary patent examiner, Patricia was surprised to learn of the contributions and improvements that African-American inventions have made in every field of endeavor, and of their ubiquitous impact on our way of life. Her books—The Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity and Creativity and Inventions: The Genius of Afro-Americans and Women in the United States and Their Patents—chronicle these accomplishments and pay homage to the inventive spirit, creativity, and entrepreneurship of countless African-Americans.

Last Thursday, thanks to the superb efforts of the USPTO's Black History Month Planning Committee, our staff celebrated the achievements of remarkable African-American women like Madame C.J. Walker, Zora Neal Hurston, Gwendolyn Brooks, Bessie Coleman and, of course, Rosa Parks, all of whom played such an immensely important role in American history and culture. Innovation and greatness cannot happen without a firm and principled commitment to diversity and opportunity—a self-evident truth for the USPTO, as well as our nation.

Patents for Humanity

2012-02-08T13:36:27-05:00

Sweeping revolutions in technology continue to fundamentally redefine the way we connect with one another and interact with the world. Today, an entrepreneur can do business with a remote village across an ocean just as quickly as a student in Boston can video-conference with a professor in Beijing. Political rallies can be organized by the click of a button, while gripping images of that rally can be shared across continents with a cell phone.

And while an ever-shrinking and increasingly interconnected world allows technologies and information to spread in unprecedented ways, it also reminds us of the unique challenges we face as a planet. That’s why the United States Patent and Trademark Office, during a global development event today at the White House, announced the Patents for Humanity pilot program. Because while 21st century challenges are global in scope, so too are their solutions.

By building smarter irrigation systems in towns plagued by drought, by delivering cost-effective medicinal vaccines to communities without hospitals, and by engineering weather-resistant crop strains to farms ravaged by natural disasters, patented inventions have the power to create lasting solutions for some of the most serious issues confronting the world’s poorest and underserved regions. By offering strong incentives for businesses of all sizes to engage in these humanitarian efforts, Patents for Humanity encourages up to 1,000 applicants to demonstrate how their patented, or patent-pending technologies, are advancing research and results in four categories: Medical Technology, Food and Nutrition, Clean Technology, and Information Technology.

Judges selected from academia for their expertise in these fields will review applications and recommend winners, and up to 50 awardees will receive certificates for accelerated patent processing at the USPTO—a powerful tool for helping businesses validate their technology and resolve investment decisions more quickly. Not only will the faster processing help technologists move solutions to the marketplace faster; it will also demonstrate that humanitarian endeavors and smart economic growth can work hand in hand.

By harnessing the power of science and technology with research and development, Patents for Humanity plays a key role in advancing President Obama’s global development agenda. By collaborating with parts of the world in ways unimaginable just a few years ago, and by unleashing broader prosperity in emerging economies, this important new USPTO initiative demonstrates that the power to innovate is the power to lead, by design and by solution.

No Time for Gridlock at USPTO

2012-01-26T14:08:47-05:00

In an era where bitter partisan divide can often inhibit action in Washington, one need look no further than the United States patent system to observe how government can work to provide real and meaningful results for Americans. Since the enactment of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act—bipartisan legislation signed into law by President Obama last September—USPTO in cooperation with our stakeholder community has been launching transformative initiatives to improve the way Americans innovate, and the way the USPTO handles those innovations. And before the ink of the President's signature had even dried, we hit the ground running in rebuilding our intellectual property system from the ground up.

We have already implemented seven provisions of this huge federal legislation—all on time—and we are in the process of getting draft rules out for ten more right now. We're building out a dynamic IT infrastructure and we've been hiring more examiners to aggressively tackle our patent backlog. We've submitted two studies to Congress, analyzing rights available to manufacturers (prior user rights) and international protections for small businesses. And just yesterday, I joined Chief Judge Randall Rader of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and Chief Judge James Smith of the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences to welcome 14 new administrative jurists to the Board. These new judges will help the Office aggressively tackle the backlog of appeals waiting at our Board.

More generally, our Board will be instrumental in shaping a new in-house review process for challenging granted patents—a process that is much faster and less expensive than litigation. For both our post-grant review process and our inter partes review process, we’re building state of the art procedures that will balance the interests of third party challengers and patent owners—all within a 12-month time frame.

We have also launched an examination acceleration program (Track I) that is allowing patent applications to be reviewed in 12 months, and offers small businesses a discount on this service. We have already started putting out office actions and even issuing patents under Track I, which is enabling new technologies, new industries and new markets to blossom quicker than ever before. And we’ve pushed our unexamined patent application backlog down to about 660,000.

Our Trademarks team continues to perform at world-best level, handling record numbers of new applications last year, launching a 21^st century total quality program that would keep pace with any private sector equivalent, and serving as voice and conduit for US brand-owners small and large, west and east, south and north.

This is action. These are results. The growing, dedicated, professional staff of the USPTO is unquestionably productive and is meeting the challenges before us. Yes, there is much left to do and many challenges ahead. But I simply can’t stress enough that the USPTO is on the move. Even in an era of partisan rifts, government can and is working to advance American industry and American ingenuity.

Remarkable Performance Results in Trademarks

2012-01-20T16:02:56-05:00

Guest blog by Commissioner for Trademarks Debbie Cohn

There’s no question that electronic filing has changed the nature of trademarks, and a look at our performance dashboard for the first quarter of fiscal year 2012 really shows some remarkable results. Trademark pendency is at historically low levels and much of the reason for this is because some 75% of all trademark applications are filed and processed electronically. We’re particularly proud to report that disposal pendency – the time from when an application is filed until a trademark is registered or abandoned – is the lowest it’s ever been at 10.2 months. In fact, it’s been under 11 months for the past seven quarters in a row.

Likewise, pendency for applications involved in inter partes proceedings or appeals have also been reduced to an all-time low of 12.1 months. All of this while the number of application filings have increased 7.8% over the same period last year. First action pendency, which measures the time it takes for a new application to receive an initial response from our office was at 3.2 months at the end of the first quarter.

Aside from speed, trademark quality is another critical measure we consistently seek to improve. When you study the dashboard, you’ll see our quality results are mixed. Our first and final action quality are slightly less than target, although a more rigorous measure that defines the “excellence” of a first office action is above target. This new measure was introduced last year to set a higher standard in evaluating an examiner’s writing, evidence, and search strategy and the results exceed our target by 11 percent.

Our evaluation of quality is an ongoing process, with final results measured at the end of the fiscal year. Results are used for improving and developing policy and training guides and manuals to reinforce and ensure the quality of the trademark register. We welcome any feedback you have on how we can improve the presentation or information presented. We have a dedicated mailbox for your comments and we look forward to hearing from you.

The Patent Prosecution Highway—Scaling a Sensible Approach to Worksharing

2012-01-13T16:10:08-05:00

In recent years, the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) has proven to be one of the most significant worksharing initiatives for the USPTO, and a successful vehicle enabling faster and less expensive multi-country patent prosecution for the IP community. It began as a very small pilot project in 2006 between the USPTO and the Japan Patent Office and grew modestly over the next three years, as international filers became more comfortable with this new process for quickly obtaining patent rights across the globe. As the project has grown, getting the word out about the substantial benefits of PPH has been one of our highest priorities.

As of the end of 2011, more than 9,000 applications at the USPTO have been processed within the PPH program. This represents a 100%+ increase in usage, two years running. Users benefit not only by fast portfolio-building but also by enjoying the collective savings of millions of dollars in the process. A recent study by our user community demonstrated that—in a single application—anywhere from $2,000 to $13,000 in reduced prosecution costs can be realized through PPH, depending on the complexity of the invention. For international filers of all sizes, that level of savings adds up quickly.

And even while the PPH has grown tremendously in usage, we’ve continued the mission, working with our partner offices—which now total 21—to further improve the program. One of the first major steps taken was expansion of the PPH into the PCT system. This has opened up the advantages of PPH to an entire sector of international filers, and also paved the way for making the PCT system the worksharing model it was originally intended to be.

Recently, we reached agreement with several other large offices to streamline the PPH entry process and open the system to yet many more filers, mainly in Europe. In July we began testing the elimination of the office-of-first-filing to office-of-second-filing directional requirement of the PPH model. Under this more flexible on-ramp approach, PPH may be entered on the basis of positive outcomes from an office which first indicates allowable subject matter, whether or not that office happened to be the office of first filing. This improvement is known as the “Mottainai” PPH model. Mottainai is a Japanese term meaning that something useful should not be left unused. For our European constituents, this means that work done by the EPO (as an office of second filing) will be available as a basis for PPH entry both here and in Japan.

At the end of January, we will begin what we call PPH 2.0, which reduces the paperwork requirements by cutting documentation, allowing for use of machine translations for some purposes, and allowing for self-certification of claims correspondence. PPH2.0 will save participants even more money, while further reducing the processing time here at USPTO. Details on the Mottainai and PPH 2.0 pilots can be found on our website.

Finally, we are working with all PPH offices to realize a common set of fundamental requirements—“one PPH”—intended to vastly simplify the process for all users by creating a single, universal set of rules for the program globally.

The Patent Prosecution Highway is a growing success story—but only for those who are using it. Your competitors are taking advantage of the major cost savings and many other plusses of the program. So much so, that we are expecting another doubling of the program for 2012. If you aren’t yet using PPH, we invite you to take a fresh look at how it can be a positive contributor in both speed and cost to your international patent protection strategy.

Full Speed Ahead for 2012

2012-01-06T09:48:17-05:00

Happy New Year and welcome back from what I hope was a restful holiday break!

As I wrote in my last blog entry, 2011 was a year of historic achievements for our Agency, none of which would have been possible without the hard work and dedication of the entire USPTO team. Once again, and simply: THANK YOU.

We have strong momentum heading into 2012, and I want to capitalize on that momentum to the fullest. In that spirit I’d like to take a few moments to discuss what lies ahead and how we can make this another great year for the American inventor, the American economy and the American intellectual property community.

The mission of the USPTO is clearly stated in our Strategic Plan: fostering innovation, competitiveness and economic growth, domestically and abroad, by delivering high quality and timely examination of patent and trademark applications, guiding domestic and international intellectual property policy, and delivering intellectual property information and education worldwide, with a highly skilled, diverse workforce. It is important to remind ourselves of these words at the beginning of a new year, as they orient our efforts toward a common purpose.

Consider the superb progress we are making to reduce our backlog of unexamined patent applications, with an emphasis on resolving the oldest cases as expeditiously as possible. While reducing the backlog is an important goal in itself, it is absolutely critical to our Agency’s mission of fostering innovation, competitiveness and economic growth. Our daily work here is vital to the nation’s economic recovery.

Similarly, in our Trademarks operation, we will keep up the stellar momentum in excellent office actions, responding to increased filings, and leading the way on global enforcement issues such as in areas of counterfeiting and piracy, to ensure that American businesses can protect their brands and reap the full rewards of their initiative and creativity.

The continuing implementation of the America Invents Act (AIA) makes it imperative that our employees be prepared with the training, knowledge, and hands-on experience necessary for us to crisply implement this landmark legislation.

In our legal department, we'll be advocating for strong and balanced IP legal interpretations and advancing the IP laws generally, through close cooperation between the Solicitor's Office and the Trademarks and Patents teams as applicable, and with proactive policy support from our External Affairs team.

Our productive engagements with partner agencies overseas will continue as we collaborate on key projects like our Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) initiative with the European Patent Office, the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) with a growing host of countries as diverse as Japan, Australia, China, and Russia. We’re also looking forward to working with the other members of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to advance an international treaty protecting the rights of audio/visual performers, at what will be the first IP diplomatic conference in a decade.

Long gone are the days when patent and trademark offices worked in isolation from one another. Now more than ever, we must think and act as concerned citizens of a global IP community. That’s also why we will continue to advance our global patent law harmonization agenda that works towards greater efficiency and quality in patenting across multiple jurisdictions—and does so in a way that incorporates the views, processes, and perspectives of both developing and developed nations.

Finally, we will continue to deploy new, state-of-the-art technologies at the USPTO to improve our information technology systems and support infrastructure which is instrumental to optimizing the quality of our trademark and patent examination work, and the efficiency with which our user communities conduct business with the Office.

We have made a lot of progress with an extremely talented team of dedicated professionals. With the increased confidence that comes from success, I have no doubt we will go even farther in 2012.

We get big things done around here. If you thought 2011 was a great year for team USPTO, you ain’t seen nothing yet!

USPTO Track One: The Agency’s Self-Report on Implementation Performance Through Year-End 2011

2012-01-03T11:54:59-05:00

Guest blog by USPTO Commissioner for Patents Peggy Focarino

Following passage of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act in September 2011, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) began accepting requests for prioritized examination of patent applications through the Track One Prioritized Patent Examination Program. Track One allows inventors and businesses, for a fee, to have their patents processed to completion in 12 months. No examination support documents or other admissions are required.

The required petition is very simple, and to date, 1,694 Track One petitions have been submitted to the USPTO. On average it is taking 40.8 days to move Track One cases from receipt of petition to completion of pre-examination processing (which includes deciding on the petition). The longest it has taken is 95 days. While on average only 10 of those 40.8 days are consumed in handling the Track One petitions, and while 40.8 days in pre-exam for Track One compares favorably with our normal pre-exam processing time of 69.6 days, we are not satisfied and are working to cut this time further.

Initial substantive results for Track One have been quite positive. Specifically, 1,218 of the 1,231 requests of the prioritized examination (that have been decided) were granted. This represents a 98.9% approval rate. Furthermore, 648 have already received a first office action, and another 34 will be mailed within days. On average we are getting the first action out in Track One cases just 30.7 days after approval of the petition – for a total elapsed period to first action of 66.4 days after filing of the request-petition. (The reason 66.4 does not correspond precisely to 40.8 plus 30.7 is because 40.8 is the average time from filing to granting the request for all applications, including those which have not yet received a first action.) And the longest it has taken us to get a first action out is 70 days from grant of the petition. So we are easily beating our target to get a first action out within an average of three months from the time the petition is granted. In fact, we have beaten it in every case so far.

More importantly, 23 allowances have already been mailed on Track One applications, the fastest of which was mailed just 37 days after the application was filed. And seven more allowances are currently in our pipeline, scheduled to be mailed within days. Of the Track One cases allowed so far, the average time to allowance is 39.2 days from petition approval. As for rejections, so far there have been three final rejections issued on Track One applications. The average time to final rejection has been 34.3 days, and the longest time to final was 50 days, both measured from approval of the Track One petition. It is worth noting that the first Track One application is due to issue on Jan. 10, 2012. This application was filed Sept. 30, 2011.

For those applicants or practitioners concerned about whether Track One applications will be treated differently from others in terms of grant/denial rate, our examiners are being given exactly the same training, credits and incentives to accurately examine Track One cases as for all other cases, and no training, credits or incentives are being given to bias examiner decisions in any way. And as for the data, given the statistics provided above, so far there is no basis to believe there is any difference in result for Track One versus non-Track One processing, other than the significantly faster responsiveness.

So we feel it is fair to say that while we are still in the early days of examining Track One applications, and are continuously working to address bottlenecks where they exist, we are proceeding apace with super-fast processing through the first three months of the program.

For more information about Track One, or if there is any other information you would like the USPTO to report on Track One, please contact Eugenia A. Jones in the USPTO Office of Patent Legal Administration at (571) 272-7727.

2011 Was Quite a Year

2011-12-21T12:51:02-05:00

As December draws to a close and we reflect on all that we’ve accomplished, it’s difficult to imagine a more historic year for the United States Patent and Trademark Office than 2011. The dedication and hard work of our talented public servants has enabled the Agency to make significant strides in the quality, efficiency, and certainty of patents and trademarks granted to technological enterprises. And our collaboration with the small business community has allowed us to level the competitive playing field by offering new tools and resources for independent inventors to acquire intellectual property rights with more ease. So with the holiday season upon us, I want to take a moment to recount what our extended USPTO family has helped accomplish for American inventors and American innovation.

For the first time in several years, the Patent and Trademark Office was able to reduce the backlog of unexamined patent applications to below 665,000, a remarkable achievement considering the 5 percent increase in patent applications filings in FY2011. Through improved practices and processes, we are on track to push the backlog down even further, helping deliver new technologies to the marketplace faster, which in turn spurs job creation and drives economic growth for our country.

Moreover, under our Green Technology Pilot Program, the USPTO recently issued the program’s 500th patent for a wind turbine rotor blade—yet another important step forward in advancing the Administration’s goal of doubling our nation’s renewable energy capacity. Through our commitment to green technologies, environmental quality and renewable energy, we are able to spur innovation and help create new jobs that provide our world with sustainable alternatives to harmful energy practices.

We’ve even harnessed the power of the Internet and the global technology community to strengthen the patent examination process by expanding our Peer-to-Patent (P2P) pilot program. This initiative improves the quality of the American IP process by allowing outside subject matter experts to contribute prior art—expanding the scope of our examination process. In an era of Wikipedia and crowd-sourcing, not only does this model allow the USPTO to stand ahead of the patenting curve by including inventive ways to improve patent quality, but it also increases our overall transparency—a goal vital to the Administration’s Open Government initiative.

It’s also why we’re proud of tools like our Dashboard and our newly revamped website. Such features give visitors real access to tools for navigating the IP system, and real insight into our performance, whether it’s the state of our backlog, inventory positions, or pendency. Ultimately, this doesn’t just show the public where we stand, it also motivates us to take an honest look at how differing processes are faring in terms of efficacy and efficiency—and improve upon them. Measures like the Dashboard and P2P help make our government more transparent and accountable to the American people.

And in Trademarks, for the fifth consecutive year, our outstanding Trademark Organization exceeded its pendency targets for first action and final disposition. Notably, the new “Excellent Office Action” quality measure—which indicates comprehensive quality of the First Office Action search strategy, evidence, writing and decision making—came in at 23.6 percent, handily exceeding the goal of 15 percent. In addition, Trademarks continued to meet and exceed its pendency goals and achieved an increase in the use of electronic filing and processing.

I am also very proud of the teamwork behind the highly successful 2011 National Trademark Expo, which attracted more than 15,000 people—our largest attendance to date—and featured more than 27 exhibitors, a 50 percent increase from previous years. Events like this help educate the public about the importance of IP and its ubiquitous role in our society.

In addition to these accomplishments, this year also marked the historic passage of the America Invents Act. This sweeping legislation, signed into law by President Obama in September, equips the USPTO with the resources necessary to operate an efficient IP system that processes patent applications and issues high-quality patents quickly. By transitioning to a simpler, more objective, and more inventor-friendly system of issuing patents, the new law helps ensure that independent inventors and small entities have greater clarity and certainty over their property rights and will be able to navigate the patent system on a more equitable footing with large enterprises.

The AIA also allows the USPTO to implement a fast-track examination option under which the patent examination process will be completed within 12 months. Getting a key patent can be critical to an entrepreneur hoping to raise capital and grow their business, with 76 percent of startups in the US reporting that venture capital investors consider patents when they make funding decisions. So with over 2,000 applications already submitted under the new acceleration program, many hundreds of office actions mailed and over 20 notices of allowance, businesses of all sizes are already leveraging the new tool to develop, grow and market their products and services with unprecedented swiftness, under the AIA.

For the first time, the USPTO has the ability to recover the actual costs of the services it provides, and a reserve fund, solely for the Agency’s use, to access all of those fees. These provisions have allowed us to hire and train new personnel, educate examiners and the public about changes to the USPTO review process, aggressively modernize our IT infrastructure, expedite application processing and issue higher-quality patents—all without adding a dime to the national deficit.

The bi-partisan passage of the Leahy-Smith American Invents Act and its tangible impact on the way we do business shows that government can work, fostering innovation, investment and job creation for the benefit of all. It has also led to strengthened work-sharing programs with other patent agencies overseas through the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), which allows each office to benefit from work previously done by others, reducing examination workload and improving patent quality. The expedited examination in each office also allows applicants to obtain corresponding patents faster and more efficiently in each country.

In the last few weeks alone we’ve announced a number of PPH programs with our international partners, including a landmark work-sharing agreement with China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) under the Paris Convention (“Paris Route”) and the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). The agreement comes at a very opportune time as China and the United States together make up a significant global market share for patent stakeholders.

For a more exhaustive look at these and other accomplishments, I encourage you to take the time to read our Performance and Accountability Report for 2011.

While all of these efforts point to our country’s commitment to innovation, perhaps no one event of the year tells that story better than the USPTO’s issuance of Patent No. 8,000,000—a sight restoration tool that gives the blind greater independence in their daily lives. It took 75 years to get from patent No. 1 to patent 1 million, yet just over five years to go from patent 7 million to 8 million. So beyond aiding the blind, this remarkable milestone is a testament to the enduring American spirit of innovation—a spirit that continues to unleash new breakthroughs, new markets and new economic opportunities.

That’s why we remain committed to building the world’s strongest Patent and Trademark Office, and that’s why we’re excited about some of the new challenges we face in the year ahead. For the first time in the history of the Agency, the USPTO will be opening a satellite office outside of the nation’s capital. The Elijah J. McCoy U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Detroit will provide a significant boost to that city’s innovation economy with more than 100 technologically-focused, secure jobs. And more satellite offices will soon follow, in other cities throughout the nation. The goals of this ambitious expansion are to improve the hiring, recruitment and retention of top-quality Patent Examiners, to recruit directly in other geographic areas in the U.S. where engineering talent exists, and to increase our interaction with the IP community.

While continuing to improve the diversity and talent of our workforce, we are also drafting a “Green Paper” on copyright policy in the digital era, in order to ensure that the 21st century best balances strong IP protections with the free flow of information over the Internet. Additionally, in 2012 we’ll draft a broader-based “National IP Strategy” to outline this Administration’s key IP priorities, our plan to improve patent protection for small businesses at home, and our efforts to increase our engagement with China on issues of IP enforcement.

Finally, after soliciting public comment on the America Invents Act and seeking input from a variety of stakeholders, we will complete the rulemaking to establish a new post-grant review process that is faster and significantly cheaper than costly and prolonged litigation—resolving questions about patent rights more efficiently. Unlike the re-examination process available today, the new post-grant review will allow issues of “subject matter” to be looked at and revamp the existing inter partes review system to adjudicate claims within 12 months; earlier resolution of disputes will weed out poor-quality patents sooner and add greater certainty to the US patent system.

For all that we’ve accomplished and the great things yet to come, the credit is due to the talent, dedication, and innovative spirit of USPTO employees who are working hard every day to produce positive results for the American people and our economy. I couldn’t be more proud to be part of such an outstanding team of professionals, and I truly look forward to another historic year with the world’s first and only 21st Century Patent and Trademark Office.

Happy Holidays!