IP News

USPTO Launches Applicant Pre-Docketing Notice pilot program

The USPTO has started to issue Pre-Docketing Notices, which are informational notices sent to the Applicants about three months before each utility nonprovisional patent application is assigned to an examiner for substantive examination. The Notices are issued as a result of the USPTO’s Applicant Pre-Docketing Notice Pilot Program, a new pilot program adopted to increase transparency and streamline examination. Further details can be found here.

R&B Named a Top Patent Firm by Juristat

Rabin & Berdo, P.C. has been named a 2025 “Top Patent Firm” by Juristat based on USPTO outcomes. The firm earned recognition in all of the five metrics categories: Normalized Allowance Rate, Normalized Time to Allowance, Normalized OAs to Allowance, Extensions, and Time to Response After OA. The firm is also named a "Top Outside Counsel," which is the recognition for the patent firms top companies hire at the USPTO.

USPTO's Patent Fee Adjustments and Tradmark Fee Adjustments in 2025

The USPTO has published its final rules setting patent fees that will take effect on January 19, 2025, and setting trademark fees that will take effect on January 18, 2025. Notable patent fee adjustments include higher filing fees, excess claim fees, RCE fees, as well as new continuating application surcharges and new IDS size fees. Notable trademark fee adjustments include new fees for providing insufficient information and for creating free-form indentification. Further details can be found here and here.

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