The United States Patent & Trademark Office recently extended the current After Final Pilot Program until September 30, 2015, at which time the program will be up for renewal again. The After Final Consideration Pilot (AFCP) Program 2.0 which originally began on May 19, 2013 aims to reduce the number of Request for Continued Examinations (RCE) filed and increase the collaboration between the applicant and the examiner.
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On June 19, 2014, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International, that basic business methods could not be patented, even if computers are used to apply them. An Australian company, Alice Corporation, owned the patents at issue. The case questioned the patent eligibility of Alice Corp.’s claims to a computerized method, a computer-readable medium containing computer instructions, and a computer system that implements those instructions. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the court and determined that “merely requiring generic computer implementation fails to transform [the] abstract idea into a patent-eligible invention.”
In today’s global economy coupled with the continued growth of e-commerce, businesses no longer exist only as brick and mortar locations, but instead must maintain an active online presence in order to gain and maintain a customer base. For better or worse, a business is associated with their online presence through their domain name. In most cases, a business has no issue in securing an appropriate domain that represents their interests, and assists with their search engine rankings. For instance, Company ABC, would most likely desire to register a domain for their business such as www.abc.com, however what happens if this domain is not available.
Intellectual Property, namely patents, trademarks and copyrights are some of a company’s most valuable business assets, and accordingly, care should be taken to ensure that there is a clear chain of title with respect to ownership of these assets and that it is identified and determined at the onset of these creations. Unfortunately, there are many instances where ownership issues arises due to either poor planning on the part of the company, vague definitions as to what qualifies as a company asset and/or failure to have the necessary documents in place to automatically transfer an employee’s contribution directly to the company.
A common question that arises during an initial consultation, especially with start-ups and individual inventors is whether or not a prototype of their proposed invention needs to exist before they are able to submit a patent application. The simple answer is that an inventor does not need to have a prototype built in order to move forward with a patent application.
All of a sudden, one day you are sitting at work or at home and something pops into your head, you believe you have an idea that if marketed properly would be valuable and desired by the public. On average, individual inventors usually develop ideas as a result of an everyday problem they have to deal with and yet the solutions available to them are not optimal, and thus feel that they can create a new product that fills this gap and will make everyday life a little easier.
When deciding to form a start-up company, there are several important legal documents that should be prepared and evaluated, specifically with respect to Intellectual Property. One area of Intellectual Property that should not be overlooked is the protection of the brand of the company through a Federal Trademark Application, which ensures that the name or logo associated with the goods and services provided by the start-up will not be copied or infringed upon. This article will continue the discussion of a previous posting, wherein once a trademark search has been completed, it is time to consider the benefits and drawbacks related to the timing of filing a Trademark Application as it pertains to a start-up company or any other early-stage entity.
Whether you are an individual who invented a new gadget and came up with a name for it, a start-up looking to launch a new service and protect your company name, or an established business releasing a new product line, serious consideration should be given to have a Trademark Search performed to identify any potential conflicts that may derail your project before it even gets off the ground.
On January 1, 2014, the United States Patent & Trademark Office released their latest fee schedule, and of note several fees have been reduced from their previous levels which should assist individual inventors and those able to qualify as a micro entity in containing their patent prosecution budgets.
Issue FeesThe new fee schedule reduces the issue fee required for an application to proceed to grant across the board regardless of entity size. Furthermore, the USPTO has eliminated the publication fee that accompanied the issue fee for all entities; previously the publication was a set price that was not eligible for reduction if individuals were either a small or micro entity.
In particular, the new schedule reduces the issue fees and publication fees as follows: Micro Entity Small Entity Large Entity OLD Utility Issue Fee $445 $890 $1780 Publication Fee $300 $300 $300 Design Issue Fee $255 $510 $1020 NEW Utility Issue Fee $240 $480 $960 Design Issue Fee $140 $280 $560 Publication Fee $0 $0 $0 Assignment Fees The new schedule eliminates the previous $40 recordation fee for patent assignments if the assignments are recorded electronically with the USPTO. Patent Cooperation Treaty FeesAlthough the fees for submitting a PCT Application to enter the International National phase remain the same, applicants can now take advantage of being able to qualify as a Small Entity or a Micro Entity and be entitled to a reduction in certain fees as follows:
Micro Entity Small Entity Large Entity OLD Transmittal Fee N/A N/A $240 Search Fee (US) N/A N/A $2080 Prelim. Exam Fee N/A N/A $600 Suppl. Exam Fee N/A N/A $600 NEW Transmittal Fee $60 $120 $240 Search Fee (US) $520 $1040 $2080 Prelim. Exam Fee $150 $300 $600 Suppl. Exam Fee $150 $300 $600 SummaryOverall, the reduction in fees offers some modest relief to all entities, however applicants that qualify as either Small or Micro should see the most benefit from these changes, especially given in the increases in overall fees at the USPTO the last several years. While much attention may focus on the decrease in issue fees, perhaps an overlooked and underappreciated aspect of the changes in the fee schedule relate to the applicability of small and micro entity rates for some PCT fees. Individual inventors, start-ups and small sized companies who maintain a modest budget for patent prosecution, and may have been previously dissuaded to submit a PCT Application, may now reconsider and look at filing such an application.
