Secret Patent-Examination Program: Rare But Consequential
Law360, New York (January 27, 2015, 10:03 AM EST) -- Last fall, we investigated a secret program called the Sensitive Application Warning System (SAWS). Under the program, patent examiners were instructed to notify their supervisors upon identifying an application corresponding to an identified SAWS subject matter. A corps-wide list of potential SAWS subject matter included 14 subjects, such as "Applications with claims of pioneering scope;" "Applications dealing with inventions, which, if issued, would potentially generate unwanted media coverage (i.e., news, blogs, forums)" and " Applications disclosing seemingly frivolous or silly subject matter." Each technology center included further lists, which, in total, amounted to approximately 100 additional potential SAWS subject matters....
Law360 is on it, so you are, too.
A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions.
