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- 2026-04-13
- USPTO Issues PCT Informed Examination Request Pilot Program
- On April 9, 2026, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published an official notice in the Federal Register announcing the launch of the PCT Informed Examination Request (PIER) Pilot Program. The ...

- 2026-04-13
- Standard-Essential Patent Drafting Series Four: Considerations on Amendments Beyond the Original Disclosure
- In the previous installments of this series, we discussed general drafting strategies, inventive step considerations, and the use of parallel technical solutions. This fourth article addresses a critical procedural pitfall in standards-re...

- 2026-04-13
- Korea MOIP Upgrades Trade Secret Original Document Certificate Service
- The Korean Intellectual Property Office (MOIP) has enhanced the issuance process for certificates of original documents for trade secrets, with a focus on two key facilitative measures.Under relevant legal provisions, applicants m...

- 2026-04-08
- USPTO Issues Supplemental Guidance: Adjusting Examination Requirements for Digital Interface Design Patents
- The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued theSupplemental Guidance for Examination of Design Patent Applications Related to Computer-Generated Interfaces and Icons, introducing several important ...

- 2026-04-08
- EPO Completes Annual Revision of Three Guidelines: Systematic Improvement of European Patent Examination Rules
- Recently, the European Patent Office (EPO) officially announced the comprehensive revision of the 2026 edition of the EPC Guidelines, PCT-EPO Guidelines and Unitary Patent Guidelines. The new guidelines officially ente...

- 2026-04-07
- USPTO Launches AI Trademark Classification Tool Class ACT: 5-Month Process Reduced to 5 Minutes
- Recently, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced the release of an artificial intelligence (AI) agent software called the Trademark Classification Agentic Codification Tool (referred to as "C...
