[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 80 (Tuesday, April 27, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22120-22121]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-9851]
[[Page 22120]]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Patent and Trademark Office
[Docket No.: PTO-P-2010-0038]
Notice of Roundtables and Request for Comments on Enhancement in
the Quality of Patents and on United States Patent and Trademark Office
Patent Quality Metrics
AGENCY: United States Patent and Trademark Office, Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of public meeting; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), in
conjunction with the Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC), has
undertaken a project related to enhancing overall patent quality. As
part of this initiative, the USPTO is conducting two roundtables to
obtain public input from organizations and individuals on actions that
can improve patent quality and the metrics the USPTO should use to
measure progress. The roundtables are open to the public. The USPTO
plans to invite a number of roundtable participants from among patent
user groups, practitioners, industry, independent inventor
organizations, academia, and government. Any member of the public may
submit written comments on USPTO patent quality enhancement and metrics
as well as on any issue raised at the roundtable.
DATES: The first roundtable will be held on Monday, May 10, 2010,
beginning at 1 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) and ending at 5 p.m.
PDT.
The second roundtable will be held on Tuesday, May 18, 2010,
beginning at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) and ending at 12
noon EDT.
The deadline for receipt of written comments is June 18, 2010.
ADDRESSES: The first (May 10, 2010) roundtable will be held at the Los
Angeles Public Library--Central Library, which is located at 630 W. 5th
Street, Los Angeles, California 90071.
The second (May 18, 2010) roundtable will be held at the USPTO in
the Madison Auditorium on the concourse level of the Madison Building,
which is located at 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22314.
Written comments should be sent by electronic mail message over the
Internet addressed to [email protected]. Comments may
also be submitted by mail addressed to: Mail Stop Comments--Patents,
Commissioner for Patents, P.O. Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 22313-1450,
marked to the attention of Elizabeth L. Dougherty. Although comments
may be submitted by mail, the USPTO prefers to receive comments via the
Internet.
The written comments and list of the roundtable participants and
their associations will be available for public inspection at the
Office of the Commissioner for Patents, located in Madison East, Tenth
Floor, 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, Virginia, and will be available
via the USPTO Internet Web site (address: http://www.uspto.gov).
Because comments will be made available for public inspection,
information that is not desired to be made public, such as an address
or phone number, should not be included in the comments.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Elizabeth L. Dougherty, Office of
Patent Legal Administration, Office of the Associate Commissioner for
Patent Examination Policy, by telephone at (571) 272-7733, by
electronic mail message at [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The USPTO in conjunction with the PPAC has
undertaken a project related to overall patent quality. As part of that
effort, a notice was published soliciting comments from the public on
means to enhance quality of the patent process with particular emphasis
on the search, examination, application and methods of meaningfully
measuring such enhanced quality. See Request for Comments on
Enhancement in the Quality of Patents, 74 FR 65093 (Dec. 9, 2009)
(Patent Quality Request for Comments). In the Patent Quality Request
for Comments, the USPTO stated that it would like to focus, inter alia,
on improving the process for obtaining the best prior art, preparation
of the initial application, and examination and prosecution of the
application. The USPTO sought public comment directed to this focus
with respect to methods that may be employed by applicants and the
USPTO to enhance the quality of issued patents, to identify appropriate
indicia of quality, and to establish metrics for the measurement of the
indicia. The original comment period was extended to March 8, 2010. See
Extension of Period for Comments on Enhancement in the Quality of
Patents, 75 FR 5040 (Feb. 1, 2010).
The comments may be viewed on the USPTO's Web site at http://www.uspto.gov/patents/law/comments/patentqualitycomments.jsp. A summary
of the comments, prepared by the PPAC, as well as a summary of the
comments and responses prepared by the USPTO, is included for the
participants to review and will be posted on the USPTO's Web site at
http://www.uspto.gov/patents/init_events/patentquality.jsp.
As a part of this initiative, the USPTO is conducting two
roundtables, one at the Los Angeles Public Library--Central Library
facility, and one at the USPTO, to obtain public input from
organizations and individuals on patent quality and USPTO patent
quality metrics. The number of participants in each roundtable is
limited to ensure that all who are speaking will have a meaningful
chance to do so. The USPTO plans to invite participants from patent
user groups, practitioners, industry, independent inventor
organizations, academia, and government. The roundtables are open to
the public.
The USPTO will provide an agenda, list of participants, and
preparatory materials to the participants prior to the roundtable in
order to focus the discussion and enhance the efficiency of the
proceedings. All such materials will be posted on the USPTO's Internet
Web site. The USPTO plans to make the roundtable held at the USPTO on
May 18, 2010, available via Web cast; efforts are being made to also
make the roundtable held at the Los Angeles Public Library-Central
Library facility available via Web cast if reasonably possible. Web
cast information will be available before the roundtable on the USPTO's
Internet Web site. The written materials for the roundtable, any slides
or handouts distributed at the roundtable, and the list of the
roundtable participants for each roundtable and their associations will
also be posted on the USPTO's Internet Web site. The USPTO patent
quality metrics under consideration will be posted on the USPTO's Web
site at http://www.uspto.gov/patents/init_events/patentquality.jsp.
The patent quality metrics posted on the USPTO's Web site have been
presented to facilitate a discussion on patent quality metrics and
should not be taken as an indication that the USPTO has predetermined
that it will adopt these patent quality metrics or that the USPTO is
not interested in suggestions that the USPTO consider other patent
quality metrics. The USPTO is inviting written comments from any member
of the public on USPTO patent quality metrics as well as on any issue
raised at the roundtable.
[[Page 22121]]
Dated: April 23, 2010.
David J. Kappos,
Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of
the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
[FR Doc. 2010-9851 Filed 4-26-10; 8:45 am]
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