EPO Fee Increases (Again) On April 1st, 2009

No, this is not a joke! The European Patent Office (EPO) will enforce (link) a new Fee Schedule starting on April 1, 2009.

Here are some examples of the new Fee Schedule:

-an excess claim fee of 200 euro/claim will be due for each claim in excess of 15.

-an excess claim fee of 500 euro/claim will be due for the 51st and subsequent claim.

-a fee of 12 euro/page will be due for each page in excess of 35 in an application.

-Designation fee will be simplified to a single payment of 500 euro which will secure all states.

Will some of the patent offices offer price reductions considering the current recession?

Obama Asked to Support Patent Reforms

According to the Wall Street Journal (link), President Obama has received a letter from 28 chief executives of leading US companies "urging him to support legislative efforts to overhaul the nation's patent system".

The desire to reform the US patent system is not new but it seems to be more and more critical (and desired) now that the US are in recession.

The aim of such reform would be to create better IP policies that can be used for creating (local) jobs.

Did You Know: What Is The Hague System?

The Hague system can give the owner of an industrial design the possibility to have a design protected in the territories of Contracting Parties by filing a single application at the International Bureau of WIPO. The application is filed in one language.

The Hague Agreement is made of the London Act, the Hague Act and the Geneva Act. In principle, any country is free to choose the Act to which it wishes to become party.

This system is often overlooked in North America since Canada and the US are not contracting parties. Also notably China and Japan are not part of the Club. However, with 55 countries so far (including EC), this filing mechanism should be considered in some cases where protection is sought in those contracting parties.

Full list of the contracting parties: (link).
More resources from WIPO: (link).

SIPO Still Very Busy

The Chinese Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) has released some interesting figures pertaining to the filing of patent applications (link) in China:

For January/February 2009 (only):
Total patent applications filed at SIPO: 122194!
84.9% have been filed by domestic applicants while 15.1% have been filed by foreign applicants.

Here is the breakdown:

Invention patent: 47641
66.3% have been filed by domestic applicants while 33.7% have been filed by foreign applicants.

Utility model: 40896
99.3% have been filed by domestic applicants while 0.7% have been filed by foreign applicants.

Design: 33657
93.9% have been filed by domestic applicants while 6.1% have been filed by foreign applicants.

Questions:
Where is the recession? Why a vast majority of utility models and designs are filed by domestic applicants?

Final Rules: Not To Be Implemented At This Time

On March 20, 2009, the Federal Circuit has concluded in the decision Tafas v. Doll (link) that:

-Final Rule 114 (i.e. Requests for Continued Examination (RCE)),
-Final Rule 75 (i.e. Claims), and
-Final Rule 265 (i.e. Examination support documents) are consistent with the Patent Act.

The decision states however that Final Rule 78 (i.e. Continuations) violates the Patent Act.

The USPTO has indicated that the Final Rules will not be implemented at this time.

USPTO (Really) Hit By The Crisis?

According to this news report (link), the USPTO should also be hit by the crisis and anticipate a 2% drop in applications in 2009 if trends persist.
Apparently according to industry specialists, the drop could even be significantly higher. I am wondering if this is really going to happen. While for some secondary patent offices such trends may be clear and will happen, in top-tier IP countries such as the US I doubt that innovators are going to abord or pause their strategies to protect their IP.
A patent is (usually) granted for 20 years and hopefully it will take less than that time for the economy to recover!

Get Your IP Scored (Free Of Charge Of Course)

Kudos to the European Patent Office (EPO) which has announced in its Patent Information News 2009 (link) the availability of a patent portfolio management tool free of charge!

The tool, IPScore, is using many assessment factors for scoring each patent/innovation of a given portfolio. It can be downloaded at the following link.

It is really a pleasure to see Patent Offices go beyond their mandates!

Do you use tools for patent portfolio management? Which ones?

The Crisis: A Business Opportunity?

An interesting article (in French) published in La Presse (link) about an entrepreneur from Quebec, Mr Louis Garneau, who is experiencing a 40% growth in the first six months of his FY.

The recipe of his success is (according to him):
-work on his image;
-work on the quality of his products; and
-innovation!

The interesting part is that Garneau sees the current recession as a business opportunity for his company. Since "in recessions, pressure is very strong on manufacturers. Some of them will say: we are in recession, we should stop developping and advertising". At the contrary Garneau thinks that it is the time to have ideas, develop the best products and innovate! This is a very positive message!

Chile and Peru Have Joined The Club

New abbreviations to learn: PE and CL!

WIPO has announced that Chile (CL) and Peru (PE) are now officially the 140th and 141th PCT Contracting State.

The PCT will enter into force in Chile on 2 June 2009 and in Peru on June 6, 2009. This is a great news for IP practitioners as well as for Applicants seeking IP protection in those jurisdictions.

Bienvenido!