USPTO Patent Ombudsman Program
In late October, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced a pilot patent ombudsman program and requested comments. According to the USPTO's notice, the ombudsman's role will be to assist "with application-specific issues including prosecution advancement concerns."
The American Bar Association (ABA) provided its comments last week. In its comments, the ABA outlined the key requirements for an effective ombudsman. These include:
- independence from USPTO interference;
- impartiality as between the applicant and the USPTO; and
- ability to keep applicants' communications confidential.
An ombudsman is generally considered to be a trusted intermediary. It will be interesting to see whether the USPTO's implementation of the program will lead applicants to trust USPTO ombudsmen.
