Patent Office Practice Committee Update

First, the USPTO expanded the criteria for admission to practice before the Office by allowing more applicants to qualify to sit for the examination for registration to practice in patent cases before the USPTO (commonly known as the “patent bar exam”). This change was effected by, every three years, adding to the list of “Category A” degrees (which result in automatic qualification for an applicant to take the exam) commonly accepted degrees from “Category B” degrees (which require finding by the USPTO that the particular applicant’s degree demonstrates the requisite scientific and technical qualifications). Second, the Office will now allow for any Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from an accredited university or college to qualify an applicant under “Category A,” regardless of whether those degrees are accredited by the Computer Science Accreditation Commission of the Computer Science Accreditation Board or by the Computing Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (“ABET”), as was previously required. These changes became effective as of the May 16, 2023 date of the USPTO’s Federal Register Notice, and reflect the BIPLA’s recommendations on this issues.

In addition, the USPTO issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing rules for the creation and implementation of a new design patent bar. Consistent with the BIPLA’s recommendation, admission to this new bar is proposed to have differential requirements than the current admission criteria, requiring a bachelor’s or advanced degree in industrial design, product design, architecture, applied arts, graphic design, fine/studio arts, or art teacher education (the same areas the USPTO considers when hiring design patent examiners). While the USPTO did not adopt the BIPLA’s suggestion that design practitioners take a separate design bar examination instead of the current registration examination, it agreed that this new design patent bar would not impact the ability of those already registered to practice in all patent matters (including design patent matters), and echoed the BIPLA’s advocacy for broadening participation before the USPTO and opening the doors more widely to the innovation ecosystem.