Another Week Bites the Dust

This week at work our lab was trained for a day on how to use STN for patent examination.  It is a way to look up patents and non patent literature (NPL) for chemical substances.  For patent examiners like me in TC 1700 it is useful for the NPL and chemical information from the CAS registry.  The patent prior art can be more easily found using the USPTO's in house patent searching system.  There are free lunch and learn seminars from these people every month.  Free food means not making a lunch means I will probably being going! haha.  Also for a day our lab had a TC day.  Everyone went to there respective TC, chemistry or biology, to meet people at their home TC.  There were examiner, supervisory patent examiner (SPE), and TC director panels.  Each of them gave some background information about themselves and then gave more information about the job in general and with TC 1700 perspective.  I think they gave some good advice from the front line.  Then after lunch everyone was able to spend 2 hours with an experienced examiner in their art unit to talk the specific case the new examiners were working.  This was very helpful as I got to ask questions that dealt with my case with someone who all the ins and outs of the applications in the art unit.  I also got some advice as to what to learn (e.g. the US classification system which may or may not phase out starting next year).  After that every was able to work on their cases for a day and half uninterrupted.  I was able to get pretty far.  Hopefully sometime next week I will be able submit my first First Office Action on the Merits (FOAM)!  I will be so excited when it is complete!

When I come home, my roommate Ryan always ask me, "Who's dream did you crush today?" He thinks it takes way too long to get a patent and too many get rejected.  Then I try to explain to him how the patent system really works.  However I chuckle to myself when I hear him ask me that.

On Sunday I will be going a National's game at Nationals Park in DC with Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.  I will watching Gio Gonzalez and the best team in baseball play in a beautiful, new stadium with 139 other people who signed up through Thrivent.  The ticket comes with $10 value for concessions or merchandise.  I think I see National's gear in some people's future. haha.  More the game later.