United States Joins the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement – International Registration of Industrial Designs As of May 13th, 2015, inventors in the United States have new options for filing design patents in over 62 countries in one stroke. Previously, U.S. applicants seeking protection for industrial designs (design patents) in multiple nations had to […]

Legal Advantage LLC Welcomes Our New Colleague in Chicago Legal Advantage LLC is pleased to announce that Jeff Keenan (JK) has joined our office in downtown Chicago. JK hails from a background in digital and traditional art. He received his education from the American Academy of Art in 2004 in graphic design and fine arts. […]

USPTO Appoints New Deputy Commissioner for Trademark Operations Washington – The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today announced the appointment of Mary Boney Denison as Deputy Commissioner for Trademark Operations. In her new position, Ms. Denison will oversee the examination and processing of applications throughout the trademark operation. Ms. Denison is a founding […]

European Patent Office Applicant Increase in 2010 The European Patent Office (EPO) has published its 2010 patent filing statistics, and records have been broken. The EPO received 235,000 patent filings which is an 11% increase over 2009, and sets the records as the most patents files in the EPO’s 34 year history. EPO President Benoît […]

Peer to Patent System Launches in the UK The Minister for Intellectual property, Baroness Wilcox, launched an innovative new tool to help improve the patent application process where experts from the scientific and technology communities view and comment on patent applications. A six month pilot program will take place where 200 applications in the computing […]

USPTO Studying Therasense v. Becton, Dickinson Decision USPTO PRESS RELEASE Washington – Today the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced that it is carefully studying the important en banc decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in the case of Therasense v. Becton, Dickinson to assess how it may […]

USPTO and Swedish Patent Office Partner on Patent Prosecution Highway Pilot USPTO PRESS RELEASE Washington – The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today announced a new pilot project for the Patent Prosecution Highway with the Swedish Patent and Registration Office (PRV) based on Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) work products (PCT-PPH pilot program). PPH […]

USPTO and Swedish Patent Office Partner on Patent Prosecution Highway Pilot USPTO Press Release, 11-34 Washington – The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), in cooperation with the Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC), today announced the launch of a new online database (www.usipr.gov) where U.S. government agencies are now posting information […]

USPTO Announces Full First Action Interview Pilot Program USPTO Press Release 11-33 The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today announced the Full First Action Interview Pilot Program, which is an expansion of the Enhanced First Action Interview Pilot Program so as to include all utility applications in all technology areas and filing dates. […]

The USPTO Trademarks Dashboard – A Data Visualization Center Unveiled on May 10th, the USPTO now provides a Trademarks Dashboard tool demonstrating a data visualization of many factors concerning trademark processing and how they compare to the past years. This tool gives users access to information including first action and total pendency, first and final […]