Complex Work Units Pilot at the USPTO

The following came into IPBiz via email:

Complex Work Units Pilot at the USPTO

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is seeking
participants for a Complex Work Units (CWUs) Pilot Program scheduled for late
2007. CWUs are chemical structure drawings, mathematical formulae,
protein crystal data, and table data, which often add significant
complexity and cost to the examination and publication of patent applications
in which they are contained.


The CWU Pilot Program will be conducted in an effort to:

* Investigate filing practice options for CWUs
* Gather information about existing CWU formats and their use in the
Intellectual Property community
* Evaluate rule changes to allow applicants to submit CWU files
* Determine other acceptable file types

The pilot will allow applicants to submit original source files for
CWUs through EFS-Web or on a CD, supplementing the traditionally-filed
application parts. The CWU source file submissions will not be considered
when calculating the application size fee, which will reduce the cost
of filing for pilot participants.



The USPTO is requesting participants in an effort to gather more
information about CWUs from the intellectual property community. If you have
any questions or would like to participate in CWU Pilot activities,
please send an e-mail to cwupilotsupport@uspto.gov today!


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See also

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2007/07/peer-to-patent-1078-reviewers-produced.html