America-Israel Patent Law Blog

As reported here previously, at the end of October, the Israel PTO announced a pilot program to issue Office Actions in English.  The program was set to begin at the start of February 2022.

According to a letter sent this morning by the Commissioner, some examiners weren't happy with this, despite the fact that they already issue PCT search reports, PCT Written Opinions, and PCT IPRPs in English.  So two weeks before the program was due to start, the Workers' Committee (how's that for a title, comrade?) objected, and, according to the Commissioner's letter, some examiners have refused to issue examination reports in English for national phase applications, thus slowing down the issuance of examination reports. 

We'll see how this plays out. Labor law in socialist-roots Israel (where some state employees still take off from work on May 1) is decidedly in favor of the employees: unlike in the private sector, these public sector employees can't just be fired for refusing to do their jobs, so the ILPTO brass doesn't have a lot of leverage here, absent a trip to the Labor Court. And as noted in our previous post on this subject, many patent firms will be happy to continue to translate office actions from Hebrew to English – and of course to continue to bill their clients for that service.