USPTO Webcast on New Claims and Continuation Rules

On Thursday, August 23, 2007 at Noon (Missouri time), the USPTO will hold a webcast to introduce the new rules. The title of the seminar is “Clarity Moves Innovation.”

During this live, two-hour webcast, USPTO officials will explain the new rules and answer questions. The presentation and audio for this event will be streamed over the Internet. All participants need is a computer with an Internet connection, sound card, speakers and the ability to view Windows Media presentations.

Links:

• Enroll for the Webinar [LINK].
• Watch without enrolling [LINK] (Link will be available only at the appropriate time).
• Submit questions beforehand [EMAIL] (no guarantee that they will be addressed).

Comments

[SF]

I'd like to see them respond to some of Mr. Boundy's questions.

[Bernie]

Is there a way to submit questions in advance? There are many well thought out situations for which they might need a little time to prepare answers.

[Sad American]

"Is there a way to submit questions in advance? There are many well thought out situations for which they might need a little time to prepare answers."

Isn't it clear they just don't care?

[patent leather]

Instead of "Clarity Moves Innovation," the title should really be, "Stupidity Stifles Innovation."

I work with lots of small entities and now I am going to have to explain to them that they now have to fork up $5,000+ to file an appeal or abandon their application.

I really don't think the people at the USPTO realize the significance of what they have done.

[Mr. T]

I have an advance question for poindexter in the rules dept. at the PTO!

Can you see the smoke rising from Mr T's head? OOOOOOoooo I'm mad.

Give me back my dough back for the claims I filed above 25! You owe me sucka!

[metoo]

I believe that you can get your money back if you decide to cancel claims rather than foolishly prepare the Document of Doom (aka an ESD).

[Patent_Merc]

I like the "compliance" section 1.78(f) best...hahaha.

[johng]

No sh@t Merc, LOL, guilty until proven innocent!

[GF]

No question, this will be very expensive for applicants. Also, just "policing" all of the applications that don't have first Office Actions will either (1) require a lot of time/money, or (2) not happen until the PTO sends out an "inadvertant" notice, at which time it will require additional time/money...

[Barry]

Does anyone think the PTO will actually be able to implement its own rules properly? I am afraid to see what's going to come out of OIPE in the coming months.

[Lawrence A. Husick]

The PTO's webcast notice reads as follows:

Operating System and Browser Requirements:

Browsers: Internet Explorer 6.0 or 7.0
Windows Media Player 9.0 or higher is required.
You MUST be able to access Windows Media files within your firewall in order to participate.
The live event will not be accessible to Mac users

Thus, both Macintosh and Linux users are being intentionally excluded, despite the widespread availability of webcast systems that are cross-platform (and even, gasp! open source.) (Note that Microsoft has not released IE above 5 for the Macintosh, nor has it released WMP 9+, so this is an affirmative decision to exclude, and not just some unintended side-effect.)

I emailed the PTO asking for an alternative access, but have not received the courtesy of a reply.