Comments for Patently Academic

Comment on Rough Patches by Gargamel

Gargamel — Mon, 11 May 2009 05:18:27 +0000

I agree with Depends on the Art. If a new examiner gets stuck in one of the “everything is obvious” art units, they’re screwed. It will be extremely difficult to make production without working serious amounts of voluntary overtime. It seems to me that hardware or mechanical related art units have generally better work environments compared to say software oriented stuff. If you’re really lucky, you get a SPE who will go over each case with you and give you his opinion on which claims he knows are not allowable, which likely are not, and which likely are. Most SPEs are too busy though. Regardless, as a new examiner count on doing VOT until you get to the point where you start getting disposals. If you’re in an art unit that allows reasonable claims, things become much better at that point.

Comment on Rough Patches by academy affiliate

academy affiliate — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 15:09:36 +0000

If you’re looking for ideas for future posts, I know many people at PTO would like to hear what you thought about the Academy, now that you’ve been in your TC for a while. How well did it prepare you for the job? Which subjects were not covered thoroughly enough? Which subjects, if any, were a waste of time? Was the sequence in which the subjects were presented appropriate? Lab/lecture breakdown effective? Etc.

I enjoy your blog. Thanks.

Comment on Rough Patches by Steve

Steve — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 02:08:20 +0000

Hi,

Nice to hear from you again. As I am currently approaching the GS-12 level I do have some misshaps. I do not like RCE’s I do not like how we have no control over them.

I am seeing some trend in my section where the Attorneys are putting more of their Spec into the claims. I am thinking at some point it will be just a copy-paste pretty soon.

I do not like doing amendments, I think it is unfair. Where the Applicant can completely change their claim language requiring a new search for different art and do nto get any counts for it. It does not matter how good your office action is, the attorney will amend and force you to look for new art.

Comment on Welcome to the USPTO! by Pedro

Pedro — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:40:45 +0000

Well you are my new guru. You sure know a lot about this subject.

Comment on Welcome to the USPTO! by Rajiv

Rajiv — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:41:46 +0000

As a Newbie, I am always searching online for articles that can help me. Thank you

Comment on Rough Patches by Depends on the Art

Depends on the Art — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 17:32:37 +0000

The Reject, Reject, Reject philosophy depends on the ART and SPE.

The people who remain employed there from my class (late 06) have one thing in common: SPEs that don’t force unreasonable rejections, for the sake of rejecting. With that said, those same people are enjoying happiness and success (almost netting 100K between bonuses and paid OT), just a couple years out of college.

Be warned potential examiners: your mileage may vary. As with most career endeavors, I’d suggest having a backup plan!

Comment on Graduation by Barry

Barry — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 02:55:35 +0000

Thanks for all your posts, Relativity. They really helped me prepare for my time in the academy.

I’m headed up to my art unit next week, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on life in the “real world” now that you’ve been there for close to a year. I’ve heard some people explain that it gets easier once your pipeline fills up and you start getting disposal counts, some people say that it never gets better, and still other people say that it never gets to be something worth worrying about (my AU SPEs, and my class manager both say that I should be able to get things done without resorting to VOT, for example). It never hurts to get one more opinion on the matter.

Comment on Graduation by Jan21st start

Jan21st start — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:51:46 +0000

Thanks for putting this up. This was a lot of work I am sure. I will be starting on Jan 21st, 2009. Hope you get back to writing here.

Comment on Graduation by Ted

Ted — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:45:17 +0000

Interesting blog for those considering joining the office.
Its Jan 14th, a year since graduation for Relativity. I wonder if he will make an anniversary blog entry
More importantly, I wonder if Relativity has stopped posting because-
1. He is doing great at the office and enjoying life and therefore has no time to blog (amen!).
2. He is so busy trying to meet production that he doesn’t have time.
3. He is not so enthusiastic now about his job and so doesn’t want to post.
4. He got fired from PTO because he could not keep up the production and so doesn’t post.

Would be interesting to know because he seemed to be a person that really enjoyed working at the office. If he had to stop blogging for any of the reasons above, then it just gives more information to prospective applicants, just like all his other blog entries…

Happy anniversary, Relativity!

Comment on Graduation by AM

AM — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 20:08:56 +0000

Just wanted to say how much I appreciate your going to the trouble of putting this blog together. I’ll be joining the PTO in a few months, and it’s nice to have an idea of what to expect.