In a continued effort to improve patent examination quality and efficiency, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will host a focus group and information session on Monday, June 6th at the Rocky Mountain Regional Office from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM, to obtain public input on how the Office can better to provide examiners with information relevant to examination as soon as possible.
Led by the USPTO’s Office of International Patent Cooperation, the session will:
ask participants for input on how best to provide access to prior art, and
provide an overview of the Global Dossier initiative and future developments planned for the Global Dossier search tool.
Prior Art Access Focus Group Session
In an effort to improve work sharing, several of the major intellectual property offices have collaborated to develop platforms such as Global Dossier, WIPO-Case, One Portal Dossier, and the Common Citation Document.
The USPTO is exploring automated solutions to provide examiners with access to this information as early as possible while balancing the goals of examination quality and efficiency.
In doing so, the USPTO would like stakeholders’ input on:
whether or not this initiative should consider information from applications or sources other than domestic parent and counterpart foreign applications,
the most convenient way to bring an application to the Office’s attention during examination (e.g., automated system, applicant notification to the Office, etc.),
which information from the monitored applications the Office should provide to examiners while ensuring that they are not overburdened with immaterial or marginally relevant information, and
how the Office should document the information automatically imported into the file wrapper of the U.S. application under examination.
Global Dossier Information Session
In addition, the session will provide an overview of the Global Dossier Initiative, which consists of a set of business services that the IP5 member offices (USPTO, EPO, JPO, KIPO, and SIPO) are developing to modernize the global patent system and deliver benefits to all stakeholders through a single portal.
Global Dossier makes it easier for patent applicants to quickly and easily view, monitor, and manage intellectual property (IP) protection around the world by providing access to the dossiers of related applications filed at the IP5 offices.
The discussion of Global Dossier will include a demo of the tool, and discussion on upcoming features and enhancements.
Please read more about these sessions here. Additional information about Global Dossier and the Office of International Patent Cooperation can be found here.
Focus session participation is limited and requires advance registration. You can register here or by sending an email to PriorArtAccess@USPTO.gov.
USPTO OIPC Contact: Ms. Jessica Patterson