CCIA Filed Comments with the USPTO on Software Patent Quality

On February 12, 2013 in Silicon Valley, and February 27, 2013 in New York City, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTOUnited States Patent and Trademark Office.  See also PTO.) held two roundtables on enhancing the quality of software patents as part of an effort to develop a “Software Partnership” between the USPTOUnited States Patent and Trademark Office.  See also PTO. and the software community.  In accordance with these roundtables, they also requested written comments.  The main topic for which they sought input was “regarding improving the clarity of claim boundaries for software-related claims that use functional language by focusing on 35 U.S.C. 112 (b) and (f) during prosecutionPatent prosecution is the process of applying for a patent, along with any further proceedings before the USPTO. of patent applications.”  They also welcomed comments with suggestions on future topics for the Software Partnership to address, such as methods of determining obviousness and resources for discovering prior artPrior art is the knowledge in the field of a patent that was publicly available before the patent was filed..  The initial due date was March 15, 2013, but it was later extended to April 15, 2013.  Submitted comments will be made available online on this page.  CCIA’s comments can be found here.