[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]]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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]
BILLING CODE 3510-16-P