美国专利商标局2022年拟发行电子证书？

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前言Introduction

Blog by Drew Hirshfeld, Performing the Functions and Duties of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO.

本文由主管知识产权的商务部副部长兼美国专利商标局局长Drew Hirshfeld发布。

Like so many other service agencies and organizations, it is imperative that our business practices evolve to meet the needs of inventors and entrepreneurs who look to our agency to help safeguard their valued intellectual property. With that in mind, today we are announcing our transition to the electronic issuance of patents and trademark registrations in 2022.

与其他许多服务机构和组织一样，我们的业务实践必须不断发展，以满足发明者和企业家的需要，他们期望我们的机构能够帮助保护他们宝贵的知识产权。考虑到这一点，我们宣布，将于2022年过渡到以电子方式发行专利和商标注册。

专利Patent

For patents, we will soon be issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to seek public feedback on our proposal to revise the rules of practice to issue patents electronically. Under the current rule (37 CFR 1.315), the USPTO is required to deliver or mail a patent “upon issuance to the correspondence address of record.” Under the proposed changes, the USPTO would no longer physically deliver the patent by mailing it to the correspondence address, but would issue the patent electronically via our patent document viewing systems (i.e., Patent Center and Patent Application Image Retrieval (PAIR)). Patentees would also be able to download and print their electronically issued patents through these systems.

对于专利，我们将很快发布法规命令制订通知 (NPRM)，以征求公众对我们修改实践规则以电子方式发布专利的建议的反馈。根据现行规则 (37 CFR 1.315)，美国专利商标局必须通过邮寄等方式“发放证书到记录的通信地址”。根据提议的变更，美国专利商标局将不再通过这种方式实际交付专利证书，而是通过我们的专利文件查看系统（即专利中心和专利申请图像检索 (PAIR)）以电子方式发放专利。专利权人还可以通过这些系统下载和打印电子版专利证书。

This change comes with many benefits for patent owners. For example, the new process will result in electronic patent issuance with the USPTO seal and the Director’s signature within one week after the patent number is assigned, reducing the pendency of every issued patent application by approximately two weeks.

这一变化给专利所有者带来了许多好处。例如，新程序将在专利号分配后一个星期内以美国专利商标局印章和局长签名的形式发放电子专利文件，如此，从而将每一项已发布专利申请的审查时间时间减少约两周。

The proposed changes represent another step toward the full digitization of our patent application processing and streamlining of our services. Beginning in 2001, we implemented the electronic filing system for patent applicants and have since launched numerous initiatives to provide high-quality services, including the Image File Wrapper system, the eOffice Action program, Public/Private PAIR, and Patent Center, among others.

拟做出的变更代表着我们朝着专利申请处理的全面数字化精简服务又迈出了一步。从 2001 年开始，我们为专利申请人实施了电子申请系统，启动了许多旨在提供高质量服务的举措，包括图像文件打包系统、电子审查意见程序、公/私配对和专利中心等服务。

商标Trademark
While no similar amendment to the trademark rules is necessary, we still believe it is important for the public to have the chance to give us feedback about our transition to only providing digital copies of registration certificates. To that end, we will also soon be issuing a public request for comments on replacing paper registration certificates with digital versions. This change reflects a strong preference expressed to us by our trademark community. We anticipate the transition to digital delivery of trademark registration certificates to begin in the spring of 2022.虽然没有必要对《商标规则》进行类似的修订，但我们仍然认为，公众有机会就我们向只提供注册证书的数字副本的过渡向我们提供反馈是很重要的。为此，我们亦会在短期内发出公开征求意见书，要求市民就电子证书取代纸质证书一事提供意见。这一变化反映了商标界向我们表达的强烈偏好。我们预计商标注册证书的数字化的交付将在2022年春天开始。And similarly to patents, this new electronic process will benefit trademark owners by providing a more accessible and timely registration certificate – one they will be able to view, download, and print a complete copy of at their leisure. This change will also allow us to issue trademark registrations 1-2 weeks faster than our current process by discontinuing the printing, assembling, and mailing of paper registration certificates upon issuance. Since we currently issue 6,000-9,000 printed trademark registration certificates per week, this will reduce paper processing to a minimum.与专利类似，这一新的电子流程将通过提供更方便、更及时的注册证书使商标所有人受益——他们将能够在闲暇时查看、下载和打印一份完整的证书副本。通过签发时停止印刷、打包和邮寄纸质注册证书，我们能够比当前流程快 1-2 周签发商标注册。同时由于我们目前每周签发 6,000-9,000 个印刷商标注册证书，还将最大限度地减少纸张处理。下一步计划Next steps

Once the transition is complete, for customers who wish to continue to receive paper “presentation copies” of issued patents and trademark registration certificates with an embossed gold seal and a Director’s signature, that option will still be available for a $25 fee per copy. On future digital formats, we plan to use a digital seal and electronic Director’s signature to officially authorize the patent or trademark.

转换完成后，对于那些希望继续收到带有浮雕金印和局长签名的纸质专利和商标注册证书的客户，仍然可以选择纸质证书，每份需要支付25美元。在未来的数字格式文件上，我们计划使用数字印章和电子局长签名来正式授权专利或商标。

By gathering feedback from the public regarding this transition to electronic patents and trademarks, we can fully consider all views as we continue to modernize our processes while continuing our core mission of providing the high-quality patents and trademark registrations our customers have come to expect and deserve from America’s innovation agency.

通过收集公众关于向电子专利和商标过渡的反馈，我们能够充分考虑所有意见，继续实现流程现代化，同时继续我们的核心使命，即给客户提供他们所期望的高质量专利和商标注册服务。

As always, we look forward to working with our stakeholders to ensure their needs are met, and that American innovation continues to drive our nation, and the world, forward.

一如既往，我们期待与我们的利益相关者合作，确保他们的需求得到满足，并且此次创新将持续推动美国乃至世界向前发展。

作者：IPRINTL-Viva校对：IPRINTL-Bill编辑：IPRINTL-Bill