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USPTO Seeks Comments on Applying Written Description Requirement to Design Patents
Practical Law Legal Update w-001-8935 (Approx. 3 pages)
USPTO Seeks Comments on Applying Written Description Requirement to Design Patents
by Practical Law Intellectual Property & Technology
| Published on 14 Apr 2016 • USA (National/Federal) |
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced that it is seeking public comment on a proposed approach for applying the written description requirement to design patent applications.
On April 15, 2015, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) released a notice announcing that it is:
- Evaluating how to apply the written description requirement to certain design patent applications and developing a proposed approach for examiners.
- Seeking public comment on its proposed approach, including examples to help evaluate its proposal or another suggested approach. Potential examples may include those:
- demonstrating adequate written description;
- demonstrating lacking of written description;
- where the presence or lack of written description is not readily apparent and the adequacy of the written description is close to the line between sufficient and insufficient.
The specific situations that the USPTO is interested in include situations where:
- An amended claim is presented or a claim to entitlement is made for an earlier priority date.
- A later-claimed design is composed of only a subset of originally disclosed elements and no new elements are introduced that were not originally disclosed.
- A later-claimed design is composed of only a subset of originally disclosed elements but there is a question as to whether the later-claimed design is supported by the original disclosure.
Interested parties should submit written comments within 60 days of the notice's publication.