A post from student blogger Nicole

First off I just need to say how cold it is here.  It was six degrees the other day and my weather app said it felt like negative eleven.  Negative eleven degrees!  That’s crazy talk.  My skin can’t handle negative temperatures and riding my bike to class definitely makes it worse!  As you can see from the picture, that is what I wear on my way to class.  I probably look like I’m stealing my bike when I go to unlock it from the bike rack.  I use to think that twenty degrees was cold, but I was dead wrong.  But enough about me complaining about the weather.  Classes are going great so far.  I like my schedule this semester and the teachers are great, kudos to Karen for picking these teachers for the program this semester as well as last semester.

I decided to talk about our patent prosecution class today.  I find it very interesting.  So far we’ve had an assignment where we had to find information on a couple patents and another assignment where we had to find certain forms to fill out as well as write a response to a notice.  The forms will help us get acquainted with which ones are important to use and when to use them.  An example of one of the forms we use is a petition for extension of time.  This just allows you to request more time to submit a response to a notice, but be careful because you only get a certain amount of months of extension before it’s not possible anymore and you abandon the application.  Also there’s a fee every time you need to use one of these forms.  The patent office loves money.  A response to a notice is pretty much what it sounds like.  You receive a notice and it will tell you if there is something missing, needs to be added, etc., to the application and you reply to it with what you need to add or change.  There are many types of notices that can be given out, but it is best to try and avoid getting them because they take up unnecessary time if it’s something insignificant that you left out.  An example of that would be if the margins are the wrong size when you submit an application.  It seems a little silly if you ask me, but I’m very glad we have this class because it’ll be better to mess up here rather than in the real world.   I have a feeling that this prosecution class will be very helpful with my future job.