Dr. Klaus Grabinski talks with us about the rules of the Unified Patent Court, language issues, training of the judges and many other aspects. We also give you information about the latest USPTO fee reductions for trademarks and the new detailed USPTO Patent Eligibility Guidance in response to the Alice decision of the US Supreme Court.

Happy listening!

IP FRIDAYS

 

Co-Presenters:

Rolf Claessen and Kenneth Suzan

 

Episode 19 – January 9, 2015

 

RC =   Rolf Claessen

KS =    Kenneth Suzan

 

 

 

Hi.  This is Jeannine Percival Wright, the Director of Legal Affairs for Intellectual Property and Litigation with True Religion Brand Jeans in beautiful Los Angeles, California.  You are listening to IP Fridays.  Thanks for the great Podcast guys!

 

KS:      Hello and welcome to this episode of IP Fridays.  Our names are Ken Suzan and Rolf Claessen and this is THE podcast dedicated to Intellectual Property.  It does not matter where you are from, in-house or private practice, novice or expert, we will help you stay up-to-date with current topics in the fields of trademarks, patents, design and copyright, discover useful tools and much more.

 

RC:      Welcome to Episode 19.  Ken and I want to wish you a successful and healthy year 2015.  We have a special treat for you today, a Judge of the Federal Supreme Court in Germany, Dr. Klaus Grabinski is making the rules for the Unified Patent Court and will give us a status update, I will tell you about the USPTO which has released a Patent Eligibility Guidance, and Ken will tell you about fee reductions at the USPTO.

 

But before we jump into all of this, I want to announce the winners of the Christmas mugs that I promised.  One Christmas mug goes to Reg in Los Angeles.  She is writing, “Thanks for a great podcast.  It is a great addition to my weekly lineup.  What’s great about it is that it is international in nature and not purely focused on the USPTO.”  Another Christmas mug goes to Ed and he is writing, “Thank you very much for putting these podcasts together.  I have enjoyed listening to all of them as they are very informative.”  He wants to know more about the interim guidance on subject matter eligibility by the USPTO which I am talking about today and he also wants to know more about patent right enforcement in China which we will talk about in the future.  One mug goes to Ruth in London.  She is our most dedicated and loyal listener.  Ruth you are listening to this and you know who I mean.

 

I also want to already tease an event that we are hosting.  Both Ken and I will be present at the INTA meeting in San Diego in May and we will be hosting a meet-up so if you want to meet us in person in San Diego, you will get a link in the next episode where you can register for the meet-up.  It will likely be on Tuesday evening.  We want to meet you in person and we will also invite the guests that have been on the show so far.  So, Ken, you wanted to tell us more about the fee reductions at the USPTO.

 

KS:      Rolf, you will likely pay more for some items in your daily life at the grocery store, convenience store or even when your take your next vacation.  However, in 2015 the United States Patent and Trademark Office is rolling back prices for certain filing fees as long as certain conditions are met.

 

Effective January 17, 2015, there will be a new type of application that can be filed at the USPTO which carries a new pricing structure.  Known as “TEAS Reduced Fee”, practitioners and trademark applicants should consider this option to take advantage of the $50 fee reduction per class.   This lowers the filing fee for one class of goods or services from $325 to $275.   To obtain this savings, the application must be filed electronically via the Trademark Electronic Applicat...