New issue of Inventor's Eye

The second issue of the USPTO's new Inventor's Eye newsletter is here. Up for "examination" this month (a little patent humor for you):

• The National Inventor's Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
• An interview with one of those inductees, Ralph Baer, whose video game inventions in the 1960's and 70's helped spark a $15 billion industry.
• Information about qualifying for special status under the backlog reduction initiative. This is program in which a small entity applicant can apply to move a pending application up in the queue by volunteering to abandon an earlier application.
• A list of inventors organizations and inventor meetings.

There's also a piece by Inventor's Assistance Program head John Calvert explaining the ins and outs of the oft-misunderstood provisional patent application. It's definitely required reading for novice inventors considering the PPA. This is my favorite part:

Here are some facts you need to know about PPAs.

1. A PPA expires after one year.
2. You cannot extend a PPA.
3. You cannot renew a PPA.
4. A PPA will never become a patent.
5. You cannot file a PPA for a design .
6. The USPTO does not examine PPAs .
7. The USPTO does not conduct a prior art search on PPAs.
8. The USPTO does review PPAs to make sure they meet minimum filing requirements.
9. PPAs are not published by the USPTO (unless claimed as priority in a later-issued or published non-provisional application).
10. You can use the term “patent pending” for the duration of the one-year pendency of a PPA.

Please do read the whole article here and, for information about filing a PPA, have a look at Patent Pending in 24 Hours (Nolo 2010) by Richard Stim and David Pressman. We've got the latest edition available here on the 5th floor of the Main Library.