Here’s your chance to chat with senior officials of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, who will be available live on-line Thursday, September 16, 2010 from 2 to 3 pm (EDT).
They will be answering questions and offering tips for independent inventors.
Instructions for taking part in the on-line chat will be posted on the home page of the USPTO website at 10 AM (EDT) Thursday.
Inventors can begin logging on for the chat at 1:30 pm.
The independent inventor on-line chat is part of the USPTO’s continuing effort to promote and protect America’s independent inventor community. You can review previous chat FAQ’s at http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/iip/transcripts.htm.
A couple of quick follow-up items:
USPTO Director David Kappos hosted a teleconference with the media last week. Among the highlights:
-The agency’s FY2011 budget request was $2.322 billion. This includes $2.098 billion in fee collections and proposed interim fee increase on certain patent fees estimated to generate $224 million. More details can be found in this press release: http://www.uspto.gov/news/pr/2010/10_07.jsp
-The FY2012 budget request won’t be announced until February 2011.
-Work sharing with foreign patent offices is moving from a “successful experiment” to a codified and “effective tool” to help drop the backlog.
-The USPTO is looking at a 4 percent increase in applications is fiscal year. Despite that, backlogs dropped to about 728,000 at the end of August from 737,000. Kappos says the USPTO is working to get that number below 700,000 soon.
-Expect the USPTO to do some tweaking to its proposed 3-track patent filing process, where those who pay top dollar get expedited processing. Track 2 would leave application filings in the status quo. Track 3 would put other applications on the back burner for up to 30 months before applicants can request the USPTO begin the examination process. “We got a lot of negative reaction” to the plan, he said.
-Although the USPTO seeks to increase fees by 15 percent, independent inventors and small entities will still be entitled to a 50 percent discount. Moreover, the office is looking at setting up a new category of so-called micro-entities, who would receive up to a 70 percent discount.
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