Since January 3, 2007 when he retired from the USPTO, Robert (Bob) Spar has been actively providing advice, consultation and training services to the patent bar about patent practices and Office procedures, including, in particular, about recent examination related notices/initiatives, and proposed/final rule changes by the USPTO. He has provided such specialized consultant services via presentations and training workshops, with follow-up e-mails, to patent intellectual property organizations, individual attorneys, patent departments of major corporations and leading patent law firms; and to the patent community in general via presentations at Annual Patent Law conferences and telephonic Hot Topic Briefing webinars for the PLI. He has taught for the PLI in its bar review course, its program on Reissue and Reexamination Strategies and Tactics with Concurrent Litigation, and in its annual PLI programs on prior art/35 USC 102/103. He also served as an expert witness in patent litigation matters, and provided legal and technical consultation services on reexamination requests, practices and issues.
Prior to his retirement on January 3, 2007, Bob had nearly 40 years of service at the USPTO. For the last 11 years, Bob was the Director of the Office of Patent Legal Administration (OPLA, formerly SPLO), under the Deputy Commissioner for Patent Examination Policy. Bob, with OPLA, played a significant and leading role in developing and implementing many major Office rule makings and policy initiatives involving the patent process, and greatly affecting the patent corps and all patent practitioners.
During his tenure in the Office, Bob served in a number of capacities in Patents, holding the titles of Primary Examiner, Supervisory Patent Examiner (SPE), and Special Programs Examiner (SPRE); serving on details to the Solicitor's Office, the Board of Appeals and Interferences; and in 1978, he was selected for a 1 year Commerce Science and Technology Fellowship to the White House.
He taught extensively at the Patent Academy (including numerous patent examiner initial training (PEIT) sessions, and on 35 U.S.C. 103 - Obviousness); he made many training and informational presentations to examiners, technical support staff, and top patents management; and he made a large number of presentations on proposed, existing and revised PTO practices and policies to state and city patent bar organizations, at conferences of intellectual property organizations, and for the PLI. He helped to create the Form Paragraph manual of the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP), and served as its editor for many years.
He received a BME from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1962, a LLB from University of Baltimore in 1969, is a member of the Maryland Bar, AIPLA (Co-Chairman of Rules Sub-Committee), and is admitted to the CAFC.