USPTO's Strategic Plan for Improved Service

The US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) has released its draft five-year strategic plan for 2007 to 2012. The strategic plan sets out these three goals for the upcoming years: (i) the optimization of patent quality and timeliness, (ii) the optimization of trade-mark quality and timeliness, and (iii) the improvement of intellectual property protection and enforcement, domestically and abroad. These strategic goals are both ambitious and comprehensive. For example, to improve patent timeliness, the USPTO hopes to hire and train approximately 5000 patent examiners between 2007 and 2012. This is in addition to the several thousand new Examiners already hired in the past few years. And the USPTO says the goals of the strategic plan will benefit not only US residents, but all patent and trade-mark applicants to the USPTO regardless of residence. As a result, Canadian companies and individuals applying for US registrations should benefit from the proposed improved service. In an effort to improve and enhance the effectiveness of the patent examination process, an initiative set out in the strategic plan is the launch of the Patent Application Peer Review Pilot. Developed by the Institute for Information Law & Policy at New York Law School, the project will allow experts from around the world to submit and comment on prior art relevant to a pending patent application using web-based technology. The hope is to uncover and make available to the Examiner the prior art that is most relevant to a specific patent application. Several corporations, including Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard, have agreed to have some of their own patent applications peer-reviewed as part of the pilot project. The strategic plan will be finalized following receipt and review of input from various stakeholders, including international organizations. A public forum on the plan is scheduled for September 26, 2006 at USPTO headquarters. The Office anticipates releasing the final form of its plan in early 2007. To review a copy of the USPTO's Strategic Plan, visit: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/strat2007/stratplan2007-2012v6.doc Details regarding the public forum to be held on September 26, 2006 are found at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fedreg/a060824c.html For further information regarding the Patent Application Peer Review Project, visit: http://makeashorterlink.com/?X57F62DBD Summary by: Lenni Carreiro