Designing the Patent Bar
Event Details
Date & Time:
- November 10, 2022
- 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Location
- Virtual Event Via Zoom
Contact Information:
- Jennifer Karnakis
- (617) 573-8556
- [email protected]
Registration:
The Suffolk Law IP Center is pleased to present a virtual panel discussion on expanding the criteria for Patent Bar registration, which is currently required to practice in patent cases before the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). To obtain such a registration, people must pass an examination. But the USPTO doesn’t let just anyone take this test. Instead, they limit applicants to those with certain scientific or technical backgrounds. (The precise requirements are listed in the General Requirements Bulletin) This requirement applies to all patents, including design patents—the ones that protect how things look, as opposed to how they work.
Panelists will discuss the recent USPTO request for comments on various issues regarding increased access to the Patent Bar, including “whether the creation of a separate design patent practitioner bar would be beneficial to the public and the Office". The full Federal Register notice of the USPTO request for comments is available here. Comments are due January 17, 2023.
Confirmed panelists include:
- Sarah Burstein, Professor of Law and Academic Co-Director, Suffolk Law IP Center, Suffolk University Law School
- Christopher Buccafusco, Edward & Ellen Schwarzman Professor of Law, Duke Law School
- William Hubbard, Professor of Law and Director, Center for the Law of Intellectual Property and Technology, University of Baltimore School of Law
- Meredith Lowry, Partner, Wright Lindsey Jennings
- Mary Hannon, Judicial Law Clerk at U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
Join the conversation on Twitter using hashtag #PatentBar.
Further reading:
For a primer on design patents, see Chapter 12 of https://patentlawcasebook.com/.