Following the announcement that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) had adopted a final rule establishing a separate bar for design patents, partner Mauricio Uribe shared insights on the implications of this development with Law360 and the Daily Journal.
According to Uribe, one intended benefit is that the separate design patent bar will help the pool of practitioners to become more inclusive. In the Daily Journal, he says, “This increase has been identified as having potential benefits to providing opportunities for individuals in typically underrepresented affinity groups to pursue a practice in design patents that may not have been otherwise available to them.”
Additionally, Uribe believes that the USPTO has taken overt steps to ensure that existing patent bar practitioners can continue to make design patent prosecution part of their practices and that design patent representation by the combined pool of practitioners would be harmonized. Speaking with Law360, Uribe explains, “This not only ensures that the existing patent bar members will be able to continue to practice design patents but signifies the level of quality and diligence required of design patent bar members.”
He summarized this point in the Daily Journal as well, noting that the design patent bar would “mirror” the criteria for the examiners, which “signifies a consistency and harmony with preexisting rules and regulations rather than a wholesale new approach.”
Uribe has provided analysis on the topic of a USPTO design patent bar since it was initially announced last year. In November 2022, he published an article in IP Watchdog deeply examining the topic when the USPTO began its reconsideration of the issue.
To read the full Law360 article, click here. To read the Daily Journal article click here. [Subscriptions required].
