U.S. Patent Prosecution for Support Staff is a practical desk reference, designed to promote ongoing learning and job proficiency for paralegals and secretaries assisting patent practitioners in submitting filings to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. It presents complex filing requirements in an easy-to-follow format, and reduces volumes of information into concise, accessible learning points that will assist both novice and seasoned support staff alike as they work to develop or update the breadth and depth of their knowledge of U.S. patent prosecution. A comprehensive guide, U.S. Patent Prosecution for Support Staff provides a detailed step-by-step guide to the filing requirements for the most frequently filed activities in U.S. patent prosecution, as well as more novel filings. The content includes the most recent provisions of the America Invents Act, the American Invents Act Technical Corrections Bill, and the Patent Law Treaty.

The purpose of this Patent Professional's Handbook is to be a handy, ready reference guide for administrative staff, paralegals, support professionals in patent law firms and IP departments. As a reference guide, it is hoped that this will reduce the amount of instruction time a Registered Patent Practitioner or Patent Agent must spend with his/her staff. The arrangement of the topics facilitates thorough initial patent filings through issuance and maintenance. Many useful features include tables, diagrams, charts, glossary, key terms, and examples to illustrate the points made in this Handbook.

The Handbook contains 29 chapters and is arranged and indexed logically so that you can quickly access the information. The Handbook starts with an explanation of patent basics and moves onto explain how to do business electronically with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). Sections on establishing user accounts and accessing the PTO's patent information website are included to help the reader understand how to navigate the PTO website. The Handbook includes a section for each step in the patent process from preparing a patent application, to filing and advancing the application through the PTO to issue as a patent. The Handbook has numerous checklists that will serve as an invaluable aid to novices and a reinforcement of best practices for more experienced staff. This Handbook includes information for filing in the Patent Cooperation Treaty Office and National Phase applications in the U.S. This Handbook is very useful for those who want to learn the basics and dynamics of the Intellectual Property field and expand their horizons into a very good-paying position!

Whether you're a patent examiner, patent attorney, commercial patent searcher, patent liaison, IP librarian, law professor, or competitive intelligence analyst, you'll find Patent Searching: Tools and Techniques to be just the guide you have been waiting for, with a range of approaches to patent searching that will be useful to you regardless of your technical expertise or role in the intellectual property community.

The Handbook contains 24 chapters and is arranged and indexed logically so that you can quickly access the information. The Handbook starts with an explanation of patent basics and moves onto explain how to do business electronically with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). Sections on establishing user accounts and accessing the PTO's patent information website include numerous screen images to help the reader understand how to navigate the PTO website. The Handbook includes a section for each step in the patent process from preparing a patent application, to filing and advancing the application through the PTO to issue as a patent. The Handbook has numerous checklists that will serve as an invaluable aid to novices and a reinforcement of best practices for more experienced staff. This Handbook has been updated to include the most recent provisions of the America Invents Act and the Patent Law Treaty. Also, this Handbook is very useful for those who want to learn the basics and dynamics of the Intellectual Property field and expand their horizons into a very good-paying position!

This Handbook has been updated for 2012 as the U.S. Patent Office keeps changing their rules. The purpose of this Patent Professional's Handbook is to be a handy, ready reference guide for administrative staff, paralegals, support professionals in patent law firms and IP departments. As a reference guide, it is hoped that this will reduce the amount of instruction time a Registered Patent Practitioner or Patent Agent must spend with his/her staff. The arrangement of the topics facilitates thorough initial patent filings through issuance and maintenance. Many useful features include tables, diagrams, charts, glossary, key terms, and examples to illustrate the points made in this Handbook.