I had a strange experience this morning when filing something at the Israel PTO via the ILPTO EFS. I had merged two pdf documents into a single pdf document, and when I tried to upload the merged document to the Israel PTO filing system, it gave me an error message... Continue reading

In a previous post I stated that the Israel PTO did not use its regular email subscription list to inform people about its recently-held "roundtable" on possible "ethics rules" for patent practitioners. Turns out I was wrong on that score, and I apologize for that. I discovered last night that... Continue reading

I didn't see anything about this on the Israel PTO's web site, but from the Patents Journal that published on February 1, I see that Israel hit patent application no. 300,000 on January 16, 17 or 18. Patent applications in Israel are numbered sequentially and stay the same once a... Continue reading

This afternoon, the Israel PTO and Justice Ministry held a roundtable discussion about in-the-works draft ethics rules for patent practitioners. I may or may not report more on the meeting in a later post, but while that meeting was going on, this story broke about the head of the Israel... Continue reading

On January 8, the Israel PTO, in conjunction with the Department of Policy Planning and Strategy in the Ministry of Justice, announced a “roundtable” meeting scheduled for January 31 at the Ministry of Justice offices in Tel-Aviv, from 14:30-16:00. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss proposals for new... Continue reading

There was a piece last week in The American Spectator that argues that the 1998 SCOTUS decision Clinton v City of New York is the worst supreme court decision ever. That decision said that the line-item veto was unconstitutional. The author argues that by forcing the president to either approve... Continue reading

Following up the previous two posts (here and here) re docx: First, David Boundy says that tomorrow there will be a Federal Register Notice in which the PTO delays by three months the imposition of the $400 charge for failure to file in "docx". https://www.federalregister.gov/public-inspection/2022-28436/setting-and-adjusting-patent-fees-during-fiscal-year-2020 Second, Carl Oppedahl has written... Continue reading

Last month I wrote about USPTO Director Kathy Vidal’s statement in October (at the AIPLA Annual meeting) that the PTO was going to deign to continue to let applicants file pdfs with their new patent application filings. What I didn’t make clear – because it wasn’t clear to me –... Continue reading

Well, that didn't take long. On Friday I wrote about B&J's virtue-signaling (or is it peccancy-signaling?) statement on its website regarding Israel, noting that they still had Israel listed a place where they sell. By last they had changed it: no, they still hadn't posted a press release about the... Continue reading

Yesterday, Unilever published a one-liner on its web site: “Unilever is pleased to announce that the litigation with Ben & Jerry’s Independent Board has been resolved.” There’s a longer story at the Jerusalem Post, but the information in Unilever’s statement is all we know for sure. And there’s nothing about... Continue reading

I’ve written twice before about the saga of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in Israel, specifically about (a) the 2021 decision by the B&J board to not renew the license of its Israeli licensee of over 30 years, Avi Zinger (and two companies he owns) because he refused to capitulate... Continue reading

My last post concerned the USPTO wisely backing down from its proposed “voluntary CLE”. This post concerns its ongoing insistence to plow ahead with its “docx filing” requirement. In late October, at the AIPLA Annual Meeting, then-AIPLA president Patrick Coyne interviewed PTO Director Kathi Vidal. While some of her remarks... Continue reading

In October 2020, the USPTO proposed a scheme of voluntary continuing legal education (CLE) for patent practitioners. The PTO would be among the CLE providers, and would make a public notation of those practitioners who fulfilled the requirements. The proposal was almost universally panned in the comments that were submitted... Continue reading

Someone I met at the recent AIPLA meeting (the same person I mentioned in my previous post, who serves as in-house patent counsel for a company with a tight budget) complained about the duty of disclosure requirements for patent applicants in Israel, particularly in light of the advent of the... Continue reading

Exactly one year ago, I wrote about the Israel PTO’s announcement of its plan to issue patent office actions (examination reports) in English for those who wished to receive them in English. And one of my predictions was that certain firms wouldn’t be as forthcoming as they could be with... Continue reading

Yesterday, after Europe had gone to bed, a subscriber to Carl Oppedahl's PCT listserv asked a question: what does one do when filing a PCT application when one of the inventors has a single name, if ePCT gives a warning when there's no second name? One response was, "No inventor... Continue reading

Went to login to file something at the Israel PTO, and got the notice at the bottom of the login window below: If you don't read Hebrew, it says, "There may be disruptions in the web sites starting at 18:00 today". Hey, who files stuff after 6 PM? The Israel... Continue reading

That title is a bit misleading, because Paxlovid does have patent protection. But that wasn't the case when it was first approved. “Paxlovid” is the name given to Pfizer’s product for the treatment of COVID-19 infections. The product is actually a combination of two antivirals, ritonavir, which has been around... Continue reading

The Israel PTO's web site includes a page that has links to the Patents Statute and the relevant implementing Regulations, of which there are three sets: the 1968 regulations that pertain to most of the ILPTO's patent operations, the 1996 regulations adopted to enable implementation of the PCT, and the... Continue reading

In May I wrote about the problem with the way in which the Israel PTO notified patentees of the initial renewal fees that are due within three months of the grant of the patent: by including such notice on the back of the patent certificate, which was (and still is)... Continue reading

I wrote last year about the decision by Ben & Jerry’s not to renew its license agreement with Avi Zinger’s company, American Quality Products, when that license expires at the end of 2022. AQP manufactures Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in Israel, and sells it all over the country. B&J... Continue reading

Since May 30, the Dilbert comic strip has been running a thread about the Dilbert's employer transitioning to a big pharma company. Patents have thus far been spared Scott Adams' cynical - and humorous - views of the drug approval and marketing process. Continue reading

Patent renewal (or maintenance) fees in Israel are due for five periods of time: for years 0-6, 7-10, 11-14, 15-18, and 19-20 of a patent’s lifetime. Normally, the fee for the next period is due by the appropriate anniversary of the filing date, viz. at years 6, 10, 14 and... Continue reading

In the mid-1990’s, as the internet was becoming ubiquitous, there was talk about moving to a paperless office. Nearly 30 years later, many businesses are paperless. The patent offices of both the USA and Israel, the two jurisdictions in which I represent clients, are not completely paperless, but they’re close.... Continue reading

It's always nice to open up PAIR and see this: Would be nicer if the appeal hadn't been necessary in the first place. And if the examiner got dinged (or had to reimburse the applicant) for this - it's not the first time this applicant has had to appeal with... Continue reading