Group
Bay Area Patent Education for free seminars and educational materials.
Our firm is led by San Francisco Bay Area’s highly rated trademark & patent lawyer. The firm represents clients with provisional, utility, and design patents, as well as cease & desist letters, copyright, and litigation related matters.
Mobile device users may need to view the table in landscape mode. To learn more about large, small, and micro entity status, please read our post regarding USPTO entity status. Please note, these fees are government fees only and do not include legal fees. The last time the USPTO issued a fee hike was in March 2013 when the America Invents Act became authoritative. According to the USPTO, “[t]he fee adjustments are needed to provide the Office with a sufficient ...
The Provisional Patent – Addressing Misconceptions
The first thing one needs to know is that there is no thing as a “provisional patent,” but rather the correct terminology is a “provisional patent application.” Why is this differentiation important? Because a patent, by itself, implies rights, and most people erroneously believe by submitting a provisional patent application they will automatically have the patent rights of their invention. It is called an application because such a filing does not grant you ...
What is the Process to Obtain a Patent?
The process to obtain a utility patent can be confusing for non-lawyers. While not all aspects (like international filings, applications made special, expedited examination, etc.) are covered, this post attempts to simplify a rather complicated process. For patent protection in the US, an applicant can file a provisional utility patent application, a non-provisional utility patent application, or a design patent application. This post describes the process for utility applications. The ...
International patent applications for U.S. based inventions can be filed within one year (12 months) of filing a U.S. utility patent application (provisional or non-provisional filing). The important thing to note, however, is that the one year clock starts from the earliest filing from which priority is claimed. Therefore, the one year clock starts from the date of filing the provisional application, if filed. If no provisional application is filed, then the one year clock starts from the ...
Our patent attorney has secured numerous inventions for our clients.
Any result the attorney or firm may have achieved on behalf of a client does not necessarily indicate similar results can be obtained for other clients.
The latest 35 USC Section 101 related subject matter eligibility cases analyzed by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).
Link to Alice Guidance Materials.
Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) Alice Tracker
Below is the list of latest cases decided by the PTAB related to subject matter eligibility bases abstract claim rejections per Alice. Attorneys may find this page useful by studying the following cases prior to drafting software patent applications to avoid pitfalls that may result in abandonment of their clients’ rights. New decisions will be added as the cases become available, generally on a weekly basis.
Ex Parte McGonigal (5/14/18)
Is Patent Application Subject Matter Eligible?: No Target Claim: 18. A method comprising: collecting data corresponding to monitored actions of a user of a web site, the monitored actions collected over a plurality of browsing sessions; identifying, with a server computer, at least one affinity product related to a target product, the identifying based on the monitored actions and a weighted formula; displaying, with the server computer, a preview of the at least one affinity ...
Ex Parte Homayouni (5/11/18)
Is Patent Application Subject Matter Eligible?: No Target Claim: 1. A sementic gene organization method comprising: producing in a text mining tool executing in memory by a processor of a computer, gene documents for a plurality of selected genes by compiling textual information included as part of citations that cite to publications that have previously been cross-referenced in a database for said selected genes; processing by said processor in said memory said gene documents ...
Ex Parte ANSARI (5/11/18)
Is Patent Application Subject Matter Eligible?: No Target Claim: 1. A method for replenishing a stored-value card by a multicard transaction computer system, the multicard transaction computer system comprising at least one processor and one or more computer programs executable by the at least one processor which causes the multicard transaction computer system to perform the method, the method comprising: receiving a stored-value card activation request associated with the ...
Ex Parte Myslinski (4/30/2018)
Is Patent Application Subject Matter Eligible?: No Target Claim: 1. A method programmed in a non-transitory memory of a first system, the method comprising: classifying a first source in a classification of a plurality of possible classifications; converting at least a first portion of information of the first source to a particular first portion, wherein converting comprises converting voice data to text, screen text to usable text, or graphics to a usable form of data; performing a ...
Ex Parte Indukuru (4/30/2018)
Is Patent Application Subject Matter Eligible?: No Target Claim: 1. A method of monitoring performance of a computer system, the method comprising: within a processor core of the computer system, detecting events indicative of the performance of the computer system; within the processor core, responsive to detecting individual ones of the events, incrementing a saturating counter circuit integrated within the processor core; at first predetermined periods, updating a periodic counter ...
Ex Parte Cole (4/30/2018)
Is Patent Application Subject Matter Eligible?: No Target Claim: 14. A computer-implemented method for providing and scheduling one or more casino tournaments over a computer network, the method comprising: providing one or more casino members with the ability to create an account or log-in to provide information regarding a plurality of casino tournaments over a computer network to allow one or more potential players to search for and sign up to participate as a player in one or ...
Ex Parte Scheuring (4/30/2018)
Is Patent Application Subject Matter Eligible?: No Target Claim: 10. A computer-implemented student evaluation method, comprising the steps of: (a) administering a computer-implemented assessment to a student, wherein the computer-implemented assessment comprises a plurality of items; (b) using said computer to select a first learning target from a learning map; ( c) using a computer to record or access the student’s response to items in the computer-implemented assessment in a ...
