The USPTO held a public hearing on matters related to the harmonization of substantive patent law on Thursday, March 21, 2013, in the Madison South Auditorium. The hearing is the next step in the ongoing dialogue on international patent law harmonization launched by the Tegernsee Group.
In July 2011, leaders and representatives from the patent offices of Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Patent Office convened for a meeting in Tegernsee, Germany. Known as the Tegernsee Group, they launched a new dialogue on international patent law harmonization and have met twice since then to consider work done by patent experts from each office. This work has entailed analyzing the aspects of each jurisdiction's patent law and practice, as well as detailed studies on four issues of particular interest for international harmonization: the grace period, publication of applications, treatment of conflicting applications, and prior user rights. In October 2012, leaders of the Group requested that their patent law experts collaborate in developing a joint questionnaire covering these four topics, for use in gathering stakeholder input on a range of related issues. The Group offices would then host roundtable discussions in their respective regions.
The USPTO-administered questionnaire closed on February 28, 2013 and now the Office is holding its public hearing in which will be discussed the topics of grace period, publication of applications, the treatment of conflicting applications and prior user rights.
Contacts: Summer Kostelnik or Bijou Mgbojikwe at 571-272-9300
Date: Thursday, March 21, 2013
Location: Madison South Auditorium, James Madison Building, 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, VA.
Public Hearing Transcript available here
Public Comments
- James Anglehart - Anglehart et al.
- Robert Armitage - ABA-IPL
- David Korn - PhRMA
- Glen Kotapish - Inventors Network of the Capital Area
- Dan Lang - Cisco Systems
- Bernadette Marshall - NB Graphics
- Timothy Molino - BSA: The Software Alliance
- Hans Sauer - BIO
- Wendy Streitz - University of California
- Jeffrey I.D. Lewis - AIPLA
- Phil Wadsworth - Qualcomm
- Herbert Wamsley - IPO
- David Winwood - AUTM