Promulgating Requirements for Admission to Prosecute Patent Applications

Among federal agencies, the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office is unique in its ability to require attorneys to submit to special requirements, such as passing a six hour examination, before being permitted to practice before it in patent cases. Indeed, the Supreme Court has held that an individual so admitted to practice before the PTO need not comply with state requirements otherwise applicable to those practicing law. The first part of this article discusses how this requirement came to be. It then discusses how the PTO determines whether an individual is fit to sit for the patent examination, focusing particularly on provisions contained in a bulletin mailed by its Office of Enrollment and Discipline (OED) to all would-be patent practitioners. It also briefly discusses rule-making requirements (and exceptions) generally applicable to federal agencies and examines the nature of the aforesaid provisions intended to affect admission to prosecute patent applications. This article concludes that the detailed provisions sent to applicants, fitting none of the rule-making exceptions, should be promulgated in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act. It also concludes that, in the meantime, those provisions should not be regarded as binding on applicants to practice before the PTO in patent cases. Finally, the article contains an appendix that should be of particular interest to persons involved with software patents

Flotation applied to silicate sludge

Within the past few years great success has been made of the flotation of sulfids, and to a certain extent of carbonates. Since sulfids are easily recovered by flotation it seems practicable that silicates could be made to float by first sulfidizing them, and then subjecting them to ordinary flotation treatment. This problem involves the treatment of a silicate sludge obtained from the Joplin district, the sludge will easily pass through a 250 mesh screen. At the present time this sludge is being sent to the tailings pond. The experimental work of this thesis was done along the line of present flotation patents abstracted from the U. S. patent office bulletins --page 2

The Perks of Being Human

The power of artificial intelligence has recently entered the public consciousness, prompting debates over numerous legal issues raised by use of the tool. Among the questions that need to be resolved is whether to grant intellectual property rights to copyrightable works or patentable inventions created by a machine, where there is no human intervention sufficient to grant those rights to the human. Both the U. S. Copyright Office and the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office have taken the position that in cases where there is no human author or inventor, there is no right to copyright or patent protection. That position has recently been upheld by a federal court. This article argues that the Constitution and current statutes do not compel that result, that the denial of protection will hinder innovation, and that if intellectual property rights are to be limited to human innovators that policy decision should be made by Congress, not an administrative agency or a court

REMOTELY TESTING WHETHER A CLIMATE CONTROL SYSTEM CONTROLLER IS CORRECTLY INSTALLED

Disclosed are exemplary embodiments of apparatus and methods for remote testing of controllers such as thermostats, to detect incorrect climate control system configuration parameters . In an exemplary embodiment, a computer wirelessly connects with a remote thermostat and sends signal (s) to the thermostat instructing the thermostat to perform climate control function (s) in predefined sequence (s). The computer receives signal (s) from the thermostat indicating whether the thermostat is performing the climate control function (s) in accordance with the sent signal (s). Based on the signal (s) received from the thermostat, the computer determines whether the thermostat is configured with accurate climate control system configuration parameters

HVAC SYSTEM REMOTE MONITORING AND DIAGNOSIS

A monitoring system for an HVAC system of a building includes a monitoring server located remotely from the building. The monitoring server receives, from a device installed at the building, (i) time-domain current data based on a measured aggregate current supplied to a plurality of components of the HVAC system, and (ii) data based on frequency-domain current data of the measured aggregate current. Based on the received data, the monitoring server accesses (i) whether a failure has occurred in a first com ponent of the plurality of components and (ii) generates a preliminary advisory in response to determining that the failure has occurred. The monitoring server compares the preliminary advisory to a threshold value based on data stored from prior advisories. If the preliminary advisory is on a first side of the threshold value, the monitoring server provides the preliminary advisory as a first advisory to a technician for review

NASA patent abstracts bibliography: A continuing bibliography. Section 1: Abstracts (supplement 14)

Abstracts are cited for 213 patents and applications for patent introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system during the period of July 1978 through December 1978. Each entry consists of a citation, an abstract, and in most cases, a key illustration selected from the patent or application for patent

Contour Detector and Data Acquisition System for the Left Ventricular Outline

A real-time contour detector and data acquisition system is described for an angiographic apparatus having a video scanner for converting an X-ray image of a structure characterized by a change in brightness level compared with its surrounding into video format and displaying the X-ray image in recurring video fields. The real-time contour detector and data acqusition system includes track and hold circuits; a reference level analog computer circuit; an analog compartor; a digital processor; a field memory; and a computer interface

HVAC SYSTEM REMOTE MONITORING AND DIAGNOSIS OF REFRIGERANT LINE OBSTRUCTION

A heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system of a building includes a refrigerant loop. A monitoring system for the HVAC system includes a monitoring device installed at the building. The monitoring device is configured to measure a first temperature of refrigerant in a refrigerant line located between a filter - drier of the refrigerant loop and an expansion valve of the refrigerant loop. The monitoring system includes a monitoring server, located remotely from the building. The monitoring server is con figured to receive the first temperature and, in response to the first temperature being less than a threshold, generate a refrigerant line restriction advisory. The monitoring server is configured to, in response to the refrigerant line restriction advisory, selectively generate an alert for transmission to at least one of a customer and an HVAC contractor

HVAC SYSTEM AIR FILTER DIAGNOSTICS AND MONITORING

A system and method for monitoring a heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system of a building is provided. A monitoring server, located remotely from the building, receives operating parameter data from a monitoring device at the building that measures an operating parameter of the HVAC system. The monitoring server generates a plurality of data clusters from the operating parameter data, each data cluster corresponding to operating parameter data generated during steady-state operation of the HVAC system. The monitoring server calculates an average operating parameter value for each data cluster. The monitoring server calculates normalized operating parameter values based on normalizing the average operating parameter values for the data clusters over a predetermined normalization time period. The monitoring server compares the normalized operating parameter values with a threshold. The monitoring server determine whether an air filter of the HVAC system needs to be replaced based on the comparison and generates a notification based on the determination indicating that the air filter needs to be replaced

NASA patent abstracts bibliography: A continuing bibliography. Section 1: Abstracts (supplement 27)

Abstracts are provided for 92 patents and patent applications entered into the NASA scientific and technical information system during the period January 1985 through June 1985. Each entry consist of a citation, and abstract, and in most cases, a key illustration selected from the patent or patent application