Practitioners See Big Upsides to USPTO ‘Pre-Docketing Notice’ Pilot Program, MLex

MLex quoted partner John Hemmer in an article discussing the US Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO’s) new Pre-Docketing Notice pilot program, which will alert applicants three months before their patent applications are scheduled for examination. The initiative is intended to give applicants an opportunity to revisit and refine pending applications before substantive review begins.

John highlighted the practical benefits of providing applicants with advance notice, noting, “I can’t even think of a negative here.”

He added that the ability to revisit applications before examination is valuable because “in most instances there has to have been some commercial change, or maybe there’s an earlier application in a foreign counterpart where we’ve already had a read.”

Calling the initiative “a great step in the right direction,” John also observed that examiners “shouldn't be sending out an action and wasting their time if an applicant is just going to let it go abandoned.”

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