Blog Anneloes Westein
It's all about precision
Dear Fortify reader,
In this and future editions, I enjoy telling you about my work as a Formalities Officer (FO) and what I experience on a daily basis. I have been working at NLO as an FO since 2016 and have gained a lot of knowledge about patent litigation over the years. I am happy to share my knowledge and experiences with you. In this first, introductory blog, I tell you what we help you with as FOs. I also elaborate on examples from day-to-day practice and most important; how we can prevent costly mistakes for clients.
SPIDER IN THE WEB
As an FO at NLO, we work closely with patent attorneys. We read all incoming and outgoing mail daily, keep track of your patent portfolio, and monitor all deadlines. We process incoming mail, whether it comes from you, an agent or the Patent Office, in the first instance. We are known within NLO as the spider in the web, and in my view, that is entirely justified!
CHECKING AND DOUBLE-CHECKING
An important point in our daily work is checking and double-checking deadlines and supplied and entered data, such as inventor and applicant data. Double-checking deadlines is very important. This is because, in most cases, there is no remedy if a deadline is missed. If, for whatever reason, we were not to enter a particular deadline properly in our special docketing system and the deadline were to be missed as a result, your patent rights could be forfeited. This is why FOs monitor all deadlines several times. Also, our system is set up so that it automatically fills in most of the deadlines correctly.
COST-SAVING MEASURES: BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY
The Patent Office sees it as the responsibility of the applicant or his agent to submit correct data. To save you from costly mistakes, we as FOs always make an extra check of the supplied data.
Do we suspect that something may be wrong in the data you have submitted? Then we will not hesitate to contact you. Better safe than sorry is our motto. Making sure everything is right down to the smallest detail: it runs like a thread through my work.
An example on how crucial it is, we always receive the correct information… If it is not, it can lead to very unpleasant (expensive) consequences. We therefore make every effort to ensure that the information we receive is correct. In practice, this regularly proves our value to customers, saving costs in preventing common mistakes. It has already happened several times that I was instructed to file a patent application in the name of a certain private limited company, while that company in fact did not (or no longer) exist. Fortunately, we always check these details with the Chamber of Commerce. Had I not done so in these cases, the patent application would have been filed for a non-existent private limited company. And in our IP world, such things are unfortunately not (or not easily) rectified.
I hope you enjoyed reading my first blog. Do you have any questions about it? Then feel free to send me an e-mail at westein@nlo.eu. Until next time!
Anneloes Westein, Formalities Officer