Subject: Call For Action - USPTO calling for Elimination of the Disclosure Document Program

Comments Due: Monday May 8, 2006
Send to: ddp.comments@uspto.gov

Please forward this note to all persons interested in protection of their intellectual property rights. In particular please send to all intellectual property creators such as inventors, artists, musicians, writers, and the like.

I humbly ask that you send comments to United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) voicing opposition to their call for elimination of the Disclosure Document Program (DDP).

The DDP is used mostly by first time independent inventors who cannot afford a lawyer. This means that when everyday people like you or me solve the next problem and invent something, attempts toward protecting one's intellectual property rights as afforded by Article I Section VIII of the U.S. Constitution will become a greater burden to the independent inventor without the ability to use the DDP.

A sample e-mail comment might read:

To whom it may concern,
I voice opposition to the call for elimination of the Disclosure Document Program (DDP).

DDP should never be eliminated for as long as United States remains a first-to-invent country. USPTO reasons for elimination are not well founded because actual benefit from DDP is subjective to measure and the benefits of filing a provisional cannot be compared as an alternative to the DDP, because the benefit of constructive reduction to practice is the same regardless of which type of patent application is filed.

Eliminating the DDP places a greater burden upon an inventor to establish evidence of conception of an invention and may force the inventor to have to rely on disclosing the concept of the invention to a third party for corroboration. Inventor should have the right to use Government as witness through the DDP without relying upon a third party for corroboration.

Regards,
...........
Background:
USPTO is turning their back on independent inventors by calling for elimination of the DDP which supports their agenda of attempting to dismantle and change the United States from a 205-year old first-to-invent system into a first-to-file system. The DDP is a program used mostly by independent inventors as a means to establish evidence of conception of an invention. Such evidence is paramount to an inventor filing a patent application in the United States under a first-to-invent system. USPTO seems not willing to wait for the outcome of a patent reform bill in Congress, which would eliminate the DDP if the bill is signed into law and sells out the United States to a first-to-file system. Elimination of the DDP is a slap in the face toward the inventor, an indicator that the administration now no longer cares about a first-to-invent system, and affirms their agenda of trying to steer this country to a first-to-file system. DDP should never be eliminated for as long as United States remains a first-to-invent country.

First-to-file system and first-to-invent system are legal concepts that define who has the right to the grant of a patent for an invention. The first-to-file system is used in all countries, except for the United States, which has operated a first-to-invent system for near 206 years. The Patent Reform Act of 2005 (Bill H.R. 2795) is U.S. patent legislation proposed in the Congress of the United States. Texas Republican Congressman Lamar S. Smith introduced the Act on 8 June 2005. Smith called the Act "the most comprehensive change to U.S. patent law since Congress passed the 1952 Patent Act." The Patent Reform Act would also change the United States patent system to a first-to-file system, from the current first-to-invent. The United States is currently the only country in the world still using the first-to-invent system.

Request for Comments:
United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published request for comments (RFC) due Monday May 8, 2006 on Changes to Eliminate the Disclosure Document Program (DDP) as published in Official Gazette (OG) Notices Tuesday May 2, 2006.
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/sol/og/2006/week18/patrule.htm

Posted by GEN-ERIC at 01:16:49 pm into the following categories: Announcements

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