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Disclaimer Practice in Patents and Patent Applications
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) proposes to amend the rules of practice to expand when certain types of patent applicants and patentees may, subject to other conditions, obtain or enforce a second patent for an invention that is similar (i.e., patentably indistinct) to a first patent. Ordinarily, in examination before the...
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Changes to Representation of Others Before the United States Patent and Trademark Office
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or Office) proposes to amend the Rules of Practice in Patent Cases and the rules regarding Representation of Others before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. This rulemaking proposes to align the USPTO Rules of Professional Conduct more closely with the ABA Model Rules of...
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Trademark Fee Adjustment
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office or USPTO) proposes to set or adjust certain trademark fees, as authorized by the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA), as amended by the Study of Underrepresented Classes Chasing Engineering and Science Success Act of 2018 (SUCCESS Act). The proposed fees are intended to recover the...
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Small Entity Government Use License Exception
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or Office) is proposing to amend the rules of practice in patent cases to clarify and expand exceptions to the rule pertaining to government use licenses and their effect on small entity status for purposes of paying reduced patent fees so as to support independent inventors, small business...
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Removal of Regulations Governing Requests for Presidential Proclamations Under the Semiconductor Chip Protection Act of 1984 (SCPA) and Certain Rules of Practice Relating to Registration To Practice and Discipline
In accordance with Executive Order 13777, ``Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda,'' and Executive Order 13771, ``Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs,'' the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or Office) proposes to remove its regulations governing requests for Presidential Proclamations under the Semiconductor...
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Patent Term Adjustment Reductions in View of the Federal Circuit Decision in Supernus Pharm., Inc.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is proposing to revise the rules of practice pertaining to patent term adjustment in view of the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Federal Circuit) in Supernus Pharm., Inc. v. Iancu (Supernus). The Federal Circuit in Supernus held that a reduction of patent term...
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Setting and Adjusting Patent Fees During Fiscal Year 2020
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office or USPTO) proposes to set or adjust patent fees as authorized by the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (Act or AIA), as amended by the Study of Underrepresented Classes Chasing Engineering and Science Success Act of 2018 (SUCCESS Act). The USPTO is a business-like operation where the demand for...
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Changes To Eliminate Unnecessary Regulations
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or Office) proposes to remove its regulations governing reservation clauses, petitions from the refusal of a primary examiner to admit an amendment, the publication of amendments to the regulations, and limits that the Director can impose on the number of inter partes reviews and post-grant...
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Revision of the Duty To Disclose Information in Patent Applications and Reexamination Proceedings
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office or PTO) is proposing revisions to the materiality standard for the duty to disclose information in patent applications and reexamination proceedings (duty of disclosure) in light of a 2011 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Federal Circuit). The Office previously...
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Setting and Adjusting Patent Fees During Fiscal Year 2017
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office or USPTO) proposes to set or adjust patent fees as authorized by the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (Act or AIA). The USPTO is a business- like operation where external factors affect the productivity of the workforce and the demand for patent products and services. The proposed fee...
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Changes To Facilitate Applicant's Authorization of Access to Unpublished U.S. Patent Applications by Foreign Intellectual Property Offices
The electronic sharing of information and documents between intellectual property (IP) offices is critical for increasing the efficiency and quality of patent examination worldwide. Current examples of this sharing include the priority document exchange (PDX) program and the program by which U.S. search results are delivered to the European...
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Changes to Patent Term Adjustment in View of the Federal Circuit Decision in Novartis v. Lee
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is proposing changes to the rules of practice pertaining to the patent term adjustment provisions in view of the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Federal Circuit) in Novartis AG v. Lee. The Federal Circuit confirmed in Novartis that any time consumed by...
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Changes To Require Identification of Attributable Owner
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is proposing changes to the rules of practice to facilitate the examination of patent applications and to provide greater transparency concerning the ownership of patent applications and patents. This initiative is one of a number of executive actions issued by the Administration that are...
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Changes To Implement the Patent Law Treaty
The Patent Law Treaties Implementation Act of 2012 (PLTIA) amends the patent laws to implement the provisions of the Hague Agreement Concerning International Registration of Industrial Designs (Hague Agreement) in title I, and the Patent Law Treaty (PLT) in title II. The PLT harmonizes and streamlines formal procedures pertaining to the filing...
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Changes to Representation of Others Before the United States Patent and Trademark Office
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office or USPTO) proposes to align the USPTO's professional responsibility rules with those of most other U.S. jurisdictions by replacing the current Patent and Trademark Office Code of Professional Responsibility, adopted in 1985, based on the 1980 version of the Model Code of Professional...
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Setting and Adjusting Patent Fees
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office or USPTO) proposes to set or adjust patent fees as authorized by the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (Act or AIA). The proposed fees will provide the Office with a sufficient amount of aggregate revenue to recover its aggregate cost of patent operations, while helping the Office implement a...
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Changes To Implement the First Inventor To File Provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act
The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) amends the patent laws pertaining to the conditions of patentability to convert the United States patent system from a ``first to invent'' system to a ``first inventor to file'' system; treats United States patents and United States patent application publications as prior art as of their earliest...
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Changes to Implement Micro Entity Status for Paying Patent Fees
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is proposing to amend the rules of practice in patent cases to implement the micro entity provision of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act. Certain patent fees set or adjusted under the fee setting authority in the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act will be reduced by seventy-five percent for...
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CPI Adjustment of Patent Fees for Fiscal Year 2013
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is proposing to adjust certain patent fee amounts for fiscal year 2013 to reflect fluctuations in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The patent statute provides for the annual CPI adjustment of patent fees set by statute to recover the higher costs associated with doing business as reflected by...
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Changes To Implement the Supplemental Examination Provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act and To Revise Reexamination Fees
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is proposing to amend the rules of practice in patent cases to implement the supplemental examination provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act. The supplemental examination provisions permit a patent owner to request supplemental examination of a patent by the Office to consider,...