Economic Effect of U.S.-EU Agreement; USITC Seeks Input
Washington DC April 18, 2013. The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) is seeking input for newly initiated investigations into the probable economic effect of duty-free imports under a U.S.-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement. The investigations, U.S.-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement: Advice on the Probable Economic Effect of...
Read MoreSeventh Global Congress on Counterfeiting and Piracy
Istanbul, April 24, 2013. Senior decision-makers from governments, law enforcement, Customs and the private sector gather in Istanbul, Turkey, for the Seventh Global Congress on Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy, to seek innovative responses to the illicit trade in counterfeit and pirated goods. Over 850 delegates from more than 100 countries are attending the three-day meeting from 24 to 26...
Read MoreWIPO’s PATENTSCOPE Tops 28 Million
Geneva, April 12, 2013. The addition, this month, of over ten million documents from the national patent collection of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), dating from 1790 to the present day, has expanded WIPO’s PATENTSCOPE to over 28 million searchable patent documents. The PATENTSCOPE search service is a valuable technical resource that provides access to information about...
Read MoreWIPO Sees “Strong Growth”
Geneva, March 19, 2013. International filings for patents, trademarks and industrial designs under WIPO-administered intellectual property (IP) systems saw continued strong growth in 2012. In 2012, international patent applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty(PCT) grew by 6.6% on 2011. Japan and the United States of America (US) accounted for 48.8% of the 194,400 PCT...
Read MoreImproving the European Patent System
Munich, Germany, 13 March 2013 – The EPO’s Economic and Scientific Advisory Board (ESAB) has drawn up recommendations for improving the patent system, based on the main findings from the Board’s 2012 activities as set out in a statement. Along with this statement, the ESAB is also publishing the reports of three workshops conducted in 2012, on patent quality, the role of fees,...
Read More2012 – Record Year at the EPO
Brussels, 6 March 2013 — Europe’s innovative powers continue to grow: in 2012, the number of patent filings at the European Patent Office (EPO) originating from the 38 EPO member states reached a new peak, beating the previous record set in 2008. Last year, the EPO received a total of 257 744 patent filings from all over the world. This represents a 5.2% increase over 2011...
Read MoreGlobal Brand Database Tops 10 Mil
Geneva, February 20, 2013. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) announced today a major expansion of its public database of trademark and brand information. The newest addition of six national collections of trademark records – including the entire United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) collection – takes the Global Brand Database from 2.2 to 10.9 million...
Read MorePatent Law Harmonization; Public hearing to be held March 21, 2013
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is seeking stakeholder input on matters relating to international harmonization of substantive patent law. To assist in gathering this information, a public hearing will be held on March 21, 2013, beginning at 8:30 a.m. ET in the USPTO’s Madison Auditorium located at 600 Dulany Street,...
Read MoreEPO Revokes Amazon Patent
The EPO has revoked the Amazon “Gift order” patent after holding public oral proceedings in a first-instance opposition procedure. After hearing the patentee and opponents, the Opposition Division came to the conclusion that the claimed subject-matter did not involve an inventive step and therefore the patent had to be revoked. The European patent EP 927945 was granted to Amazon in April 2003...
Read MoreEuropean Patent Office Sets Record
In 2012, the European Patent Office (EPO) received 258 000 patent applications. This represents a 5.7% increase over 2011 (244 000) and sets a new record. In the same year, the EPO published 65 700 granted patents, 5.8% more than in 2011 (62 115). As far as the origin of filings is concerned, the trends observed in recent years persisted. With 63% of the filings, a clear majority came from...
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