USPTO Software Partnership Meeting on October 17

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will hold a Software Partnership Meeting on October 17, 2013, at the U.C. Berkeley School of Law in Berkeley, California to provide a forum for the software and high-tech communities to hear about governmental activities to improve software-related patent policies and examinations and to have a discussion on possible ways to improve claim clarity through the use of glossaries.

To help facilitate the discussion, the USPTO has provided a set of questions related to claim clarity, the current use of glossaries, and the potential structure of a possible glossary pilot program. Written comments in response to those questions should be submitted to the USPTO by October 3, 2013.

The meeting also will explore the written feedback the USPTO received from the prior roundtables held in February in California and Washington, D.C. and will provide an overview of recommended actions identified by the White House Task on High-Tech Patent Issues in June 2013. USACM was among several stakeholders who submitted comments to the USPTO in February on possible ways to enhance the quality of software-related patents.

The October 17 meeting is open to the public, but advance registration is required. Requests to attend or to speak must be received by September 27, 2013.

For more information about the October 17 Software Partnership Meeting, see:
http://www.uspto.gov/patents/init_events/software_partnership.jsp

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