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Phillip Articola

Patent Attorney

HC Park & Associates

Phillip Articola is a patent attorney with HC Park & Associates, in Reston, Virginia. He joined HC Park & Associates in December, 2020. His practice encompasses all aspects of domestic and foreign patent preparation and prosecution as well as patent office appeals, reexaminations, reissues, and interferences. Phil has both a bachelors degree and a masters degree in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park, with emphasis in the fields of communications and computers. In his 26+ years of experience as an IP attorney, he has prosecuted thousands of patent applications and has drafted hundreds of patent applications involving the technologies noted below. Further, he has written and prosecuted many trademark applications throughout his career as an IP attorney. He has also published extensively over those years on relevant CAFC IP cases and on changes in patent prosecution (e.g., enactment of AIA).

Recent Articles by Phillip Articola

Patent Prosecution Tip: File Your Continuation and Divisional Applications Prior to or With Payment of the Issue Fee

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) sent out an email alert on March 16, 2023 about its transition to eGrants for patents. This change to electronic patent grants as opposed to paper patents is in accord with the USPTO’s continued changes to an all-electronic and no paper system. Prior changes have included all-electronic office actions, and of course the USPTO’s EFS-Web system, in which filings are made electronically with the USPTO. One important thing to realize is that a patent may grant very soon after payment of the issue fee, so if the Applicant desires to have a continuation, continuation-in-part (CIP), and/or divisional application filed (all such applications are referred to as “continuing applications”), they should really do so before or at the same time the issue fee is paid, in order to maintain the pendency with the to-be-issued patent.