LAIPLALAIPLA
LAIPLALAIPLA
  • About
    • About LAIPLA
    • Ambassador Outreach Program
    • Board of Directors
    • Committees
    • Administration
    • Member Firms and Companies
    • Past Presidents
    • Recent Past Presidents
    • Public Service Award
    • Diversity Fellowship
    • Bylaws
  • Events
  • Membership
  • Sponsorship
  • IP Blogs
  • Contact
  • About
    • About LAIPLA
    • Ambassador Outreach Program
    • Board of Directors
    • Committees
    • Administration
    • Member Firms and Companies
    • Past Presidents
    • Recent Past Presidents
    • Public Service Award
    • Diversity Fellowship
    • Bylaws
  • Events
  • Membership
  • Sponsorship
  • IP Blogs
  • Contact

Patent Procedures at the PTO: A New Naples Roundtable Study (con’d)

January 20, 2017| in Wegner's Writings| by Hal Wegner

Further to this morning’s announcement of a study of PTO procedures by The Naples Roundtable, two senior members of the profession have each responded, as below.

Regards,
Hal

 

The First Response:  I have long been pressing Director Lee openly to reward outstanding examiners and discipline, at least by transfer to less desirable and less harmful positions, those who perform poorly, whether by pattern of wrongful allowances or pattern of wrongful denials.  She implied contracts or understandings with the union largely tied her hands.  I would love to investigate these issues and determine the extent of accuracy in her explanations.

If she is really blocked, then the  PTO-union arrangements must be revised.  If she is not, then she should be placed under unrelenting pressure to do as I suggested.

 

The Second Response:  The Collective Bargaining Agreement can be found here.http://popa.org/about/popa-legal-texts/.  Many other agreements, e.g., teleworking, can be found on the POPA web site.  Tellingly, the CBA is dated in 1986.  Like “compact prosecution” the CBA needs to be torn up and the entire patent examination system needs to be re-engineered staring with a clean sheet of paper.  If Ms. Lee is retained as Director, I hope she has new marching orders regarding the PTO’s relationship with POPA to where PTO management will take control of the agency back from the union. 

IP Blog Categories

  • Announcements
  • Events
  • LAIPLA News
  • The TTABlog
  • Uncategorized
  • Wegner's Top 10
  • Wegner's Writings

Archives

Previous

Michelle Lee to Stay at the PTO??? (Really?)

Next

Patent Procedures at the PTO: A New Naples Roundtable Study


Since 1934, LAIPLA has been educating and connecting members of the local intellectual property legal community

Pages

About 
Events
Membership
Sponsorship
Contact
Privacy Policy

Search
Contact

LAIPLA
1621 W 25th Street
Box 633
San Pedro, CA 90732
Phone: (323) 285-1654
Fax: ( 310) 878-0517
Email: office@laipla.net

© 2023 Los Angeles Intellectual Property Law Association. All Rights Reserved | Website design by SafeHouse Web.