This past Friday, Jay Erstling, Director of the Office of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), spoke at a lunch-time gathering here in Portland, Oregon. The gathering had three sponsors — Lewis & Clark Law School’s i.p. program, the Oregon State Bar’s I.P. Section, and the Oregon Patent Law Association.

At the talk, Mr. Erstling described both the growth in PCT activity and a number of new policies and procedures in the PCT system. A pdf version of the slides Mr. Erstling used during his presentation is here.

Information about this August 2006 conference is here. Sadly, I can’t attend …  [ Hat tip to William McGeveran at Info/Law. ]

The Senate’s i.p. subcommittee (of the Judiciary Committee) held a hearing today on patent litigation reform.  The hearing focused on the contours of a new post-grant opposition system.  c|net has a recap.

If you want to get up to speed on recent patent reform efforts, the Patent Reform Library at J. Matthew Buchanan’s Promote the Progress is a great place to start.