On Wednesday May 4, the Patent Office is holding a couple of “Customer Partnership Meetings.” These meetings are designed to provide insight into how the patent office handles patent applications and tend to give some informal insight into peculiarities of particular technology areas. They are also free of charge.
1) Nanotechnology
The PTO has a newly formed Nanotechnology art unit class. The Wednesday discussion will provide a look at how the new art unit is collecting and searching the prior art. In addition, an industry panel will give feedback to the PTO and participants. There will also be time for an open floor discussion. Although the deadline for signing up for the conference has passed,
there is still some room for those interested. Contact Jill.Warden@uspto.gov.
2) Business Methods
Because of a popular believe that business method patents are of lower quality, the PTO has instituted a number of initiatives to improve quality in the art unit. The PTO is focusing on speeding up a process that currently involves long delays. John Love, director of art unit handling business method patents as well as other members of the unit will be available to discuss these issues. This conference may be full — however Joseph.Thomas@uspto.gov may be able to fit you in.
Note: I’m planning to be at the business methods conference. I look forward to meeting you there.