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Changes to Permit Payment of Patent and Trademark Fees by Credit Card
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is amending the rules of practice to provide for the payment of any patent process or trademark process fee by credit card. The Office previously limited payment by credit card to the fees required for information products or for an electronic submission of or in a trademark application. The...
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Request for Continued Examination Practice and Changes to Provisional Application Practice
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is revising the rules of practice in patent cases to implement certain provisions of the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999. These provisions of the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999: Provide for continued examination of an application for a fee; extend the pendency of a...
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Changes To Implement the Patent Business Goals
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) has established business goals for the organizations reporting to the Commissioner for Patents (Patent Business Goals). The focus of the Patent Business Goals is to increase the level of service to the public by raising the efficiency and effectiveness of the Office's business processes. In...
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Changes To Implement Patent Term Adjustment Under Twenty-Year Patent Term
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is revising the rules of practice in patent cases to implement certain provisions of the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999. These provisions of the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 provide patent term adjustment to compensate patentees for certain delays in the application...
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Changes to Implement Eighteen-Month Publication of Patent Applications
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is revising the rules of practice in patent cases to implement certain provisions of the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999. These provisions of the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 provide, with certain exceptions, for the publication of pending patent applications (other...
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Treatment of Unlocatable Patent Application and Patent Files
The United States Patent and Trademark Office is amending the rules of practice to provide for the replacement of patent application and patent files that cannot be located after a reasonable search. This change is designed to expedite the process of application and patent file reconstruction to minimize the processing or examination delays...
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Rules to Implement Optional Inter Partes Reexamination Proceedings
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (the Office) is amending its rules of practice in patent cases to provide revised procedures for the reexamination of patents and thereby implement certain provisions of the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999. The American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 included an amendment to the Patent Act to...
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Revision of Patent Cooperation Treaty Application Procedure
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is amending its rules of practice relating to applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). These changes conform the United States rules of practice to the Regulations under the PCT which became effective March 1, 2001. The result will be more streamlined procedures for...
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Changes to the Time Period for Making Any Necessary Deposit of Biological Material
In a rulemaking to implement the Patent Business Goals, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) proposed a change to the time period within which a deposit of biological material (if needed) must be made. The Office held this proposed change in abeyance pending consideration of a study by the Comptroller General of the potential...
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Timing of National Stage Commencement in the United States for Patent Cooperation Treaty Applications
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is amending the regulations to include the current statutory provisions that define when national stage commencement occurs in an application filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). The Office is making this change due to a possible change in the patent statute to provide that the...
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Legal Processes
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (``USPTO'' or ``Office'') is implementing rules relating to civil actions and claims involving the Office. Specifically, the rules provide procedures for service of process, for obtaining Office documents and employee testimony, for indemnifying employees, and for making a claim against the Office...
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Requirements for Claiming the Benefit of Prior-Filed Applications Under Eighteen-Month Publication of Patent Applications
In implementing the provisions of the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 related to the eighteen-month publication of patent applications, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) revised the rules of practice related to requirements for claiming the benefit of a prior-filed application. The Office is now revising the time...
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Revision of the Time Limit for National Stage Commencement in the United States for Patent Cooperation Treaty Applications
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is revising the rules of practice relating to applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). This rule modifies the Office's rules of practice to comply with an amendment to the PCT. The changes in this rule specifically involve revising the rules of practice consistent with...
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Regulations Relating to Disclosure of Information and Employee Testimony in Litigation; Removal of Obsolete Regulations
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issues this final rule to remove and reserve regulations concerning the policies and procedures relating to the disclosure of information and employee testimony in litigation not involving the United States. These regulations are removed because they have been superseded by other...
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Correspondence With the United States Patent and Trademark Office
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is revising the rules of practice to change the address for certain correspondence with the Office. The Office is preparing to move to Alexandria, Virginia. The Office is changing certain correspondence addresses so that all correspondence with the Office will now be routed through a United...
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Elimination of Continued Prosecution Application Practice as to Utility and Plant Patent Applications
The American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 (AIPA) enacted provisions for the continued examination of a utility or plant application at the request of the applicant (request for continued examination or RCE practice). Since continued prosecution application (CPA) practice is largely redundant in view of RCE practice, the Office is eliminating...
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Changes To Implement Electronic Maintenance of Official Patent Application Records
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is revising the rules of practice in patent cases as part of its 21st Century Strategic Plan to implement beginning-to-end electronic image processing of patent applications. Specifically, the changes adopted in this notice facilitate electronic image data capture and processing, streamline...
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January 2004 Revision of Patent Cooperation Treaty Application Procedure
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is amending the rules of practice to conform them to certain amendments made to the Regulations under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) that will take effect on January 1, 2004. These amendments will result in the addition of a written opinion in PCT Chapter I, as well as a simplification...
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Changes to Implement the 2002 Inter Partes
The 21st Century Department of Justice Appropriations Authorization Act contains a title relating to intellectual property. The patent-related provisions in the intellectual property title of the 21st Century Department of Justice Appropriations Authorization Act include provisions permitting a third party requester in an inter partes...
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Revision of Power of Attorney and Assignment Practice
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is revising the rules of practice to allow for more efficient processing of powers of attorney and assignment documents within the Office. For example, the Office will require applicants to use the Office's Customer Number practice if more than ten registered patent practitioners are to be...