Today I received from the Israel PTO identical letters in two different patent applications. In both applications, we requested suspension of examination back in 2023, when the procedure was for the applicant to first request suspension and for the Israel PTO to then send a letter shortly before the commencement of examination, telling the applicant to pay for the suspension or examination would commence.
In the interim, as I reported here, last June the ILPTO announced it was changing its procedure: applicants would henceforth need to pay for suspension at the time the suspension request is made, and the deadline for requesting (and paying) for the suspension would no longer be the actual commencement of substantive examination, but three months before the date on which substantive examination is expected to start. And how does one determine that? By looking at the ILPTO’s public database, which unhelpfully states “Pendency for exam XX Months”, without stating when counting of the XX months starts. (Turns out it’s from national phase entry or, if the application isn’t a PCT national phase application, from the actual filing date in Israel.)
In both of the applications in which I received the letter, the expected examination date is less than three months away. This, apparently, is the proximal cause for the letter being mailed specifically in these two cases. The letter mentions that within the next month, the ILPTO’s electronic filing system will be updated to implement the new procedure for requesting suspension, and states that “during the next month, it will be possible to request suspension for applications for which the expected examination date is less than three months away”. This is a ham-fisted way of the Office saying, “Pay up now, or we’re going to start examining your case.” That these two cases are due to be examined soon, and that suspension was requested in them in 2023, also explains why I received the letter specifically in these two cases, and not as part of a general email blast to the ILPTO’s mailing list.
The fact that the letter wasn’t sent to the general readership is puzzling, inasmuch as it’s worded as a general letter, not a case-specific one, and it includes, in a yellow-highlighted passage, the helpful notation that “the Office will inform the applicant of changes in the expected examination date, to the extent there are any”, a statement that seems to be directed to the entire applicant population, not just to these two applicants of mine. As to the substance of that statement itself, I loosely paraphrase it as really saying: “The deadline for requesting suspension is a moving target, and maybe we’ll let you know if the date changes, but if you really want to be safe, you should request and pay for suspension as early as possible so that you don’t get screwed by us beginning examination before you want us to”.
The letter also mentions that if anyone has questions, they should contact Ora Sasson, and then the letter then helpfully doesn’t provide her telephone number or email address. I happen to have both in my phone’s address book, as does pretty much anyone who deals with the ILPTO on a regular basis, but how hard would it have been to include that information in the letter?
None of this changes the fact that, as I have discussed previously, the ILPTO is not authorized to collect fees for suspending examination.