USPTO "Rules" Partnership Meeting Nov. 9

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has announced its first "Rules Customer Partnership Meeting" to be hosted by the Deputy Commissioner for Patent Examination Policy (DCPEP) and managers of the Office of Patent Legal Administration (OPLA) on Wednesday, November 9, 2005, 8:00 am to 11:30 am, in the Madison Auditorium, at 600 Dulany Street, in Alexandria, Virginia, 22313. Requests for attendance should be submitted by November 4, 2005 to Grace Ramdat at (571) 272-7746 or grace.ramdat@uspto.gov with the attendee's name, affiliation, title, mailing address, telephone number, facsimile number and e-mail address.

The format of the partnership meeting is expected to be a series of presentations by Office staff, with each presentation followed by a period, time permitting, for comments or questions from the attending audience. Anticipated topics for the partnership meeting include recent rule packages, patent practice and policy initiatives, programs for enhanced quality in examination and reexamination procedure, and other topics specific to patent practice and policy.

The USPTO's Customer Partnership Initiative provides a forum to share ideas, experiences, and insights between individual users and the USPTO. The USPTO does not intend to use these customer partnership groups to arrive at a group consensus. Individual opinions are sought from varying participants, and the meetings are intended to be informal in nature. Another customer partnership neeting, "Partnering in Patents XII," will be held on October 26, 2005, 12:00 – 4:00 pm in the Madison Auditorium prior to the AIPLA annual meeting.