WARNING:
The information
contained on this page was correct at the time of original publication.
Some information may no longer be applicable. Amendments may have been
made to the rules of practice since the original date of a publication,
there may have been a change in any fees indicated, and certain references
to publications may no longer be valid. Wherever there is a reference
to a statute or rule, please check carefully whether the statute or rule
in force at the date of publication of the information has since been
amended. For example, CPA practice only applies to Design applications.
CPA practice in utility and plant applications was eliminated July 14,
2003. See Elimination of Continued Prosecution Application Practice
as to Utility and Plant Patent Applications; Final Rule
68 Fed. Reg. 32376 (May 30, 2003), 1271
Off. Gaz. Pat. Office 143 (June 24, 2003).
FINAL RULES: RECENT CHANGES TO PATENT PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE
TRAINING AND IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE and SUPPLEMENT 2/98)
EFFECTIVE DATE: DECEMBER 1, 1997
Change to §
1.53 (d): Changes to Continued Prosecution Application Practice;
Interim Rule Notice
Federal Register 63 Fed. Reg.
5732 (February
4, 1998).
Official Gazette 1207 Off. Gaz. Pat.
Office 83 (February 24, 1998).
Errata Notice: Changes to Patent Practice and Procedures;
Correction
Federal Register 62 Fed. Reg.
61235
(November 17, 1997).
Official Gazette 1204 Off. Gaz. Pat.
Office 90 (November 25, 1997).
The rule package: Changes to Patent Practice and
Procedure; Final Rule
Federal Register 62 Fed. Reg. 53131
(October 10, 1997).
Official Gazette 1203 Off. Gaz. Pat. Office
63 (October 21, 1997).
NOTE: The Special Program Law Office of the
Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Patent Policy and Projects has prepared
a Training and Implementation Guide entitled
Final Rule: Changes to Patent Practice and Procedure, effective
December 1, 1997, and a Supplement
(2/98) to aid in analyzing the recently revised rules.
A fillable Adobe PDF format order form
is available for purchasing the Guide in paper (looseleaf notebook)
or on a CD-ROM.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE DOCUMENTS BELOW ARE PRESENTED IN
ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING FORMATS, AS INDICATED BY THE FILE
NAME EXTENSION: Adobe Acrobat® (.pdf), Text (.txt) and MS
PowerPoint® 7.0 (.ppt)
[Click here for free
readers]
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| ----- Latest Information (February
18, 1998) ----- |
SUPPLEMENT (2/98)
TO
TRAINING AND IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE FOR THE
FINAL RULE: CHANGES TO PATENT PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE, effective
DECEMBER 1, 1997
37 CFR 1.53(d) as amended, effective
December 1, 1997, provided for the filing of a continuation or
divisional application as a continued prosecution application
(CPA), but required that the prior application be filed on or
after June 8, 1995. See Changes to Patent Practice and Procedure;
Final Rule Notice, 62 Fed Reg. 53131 (October 10, 1997),
1203 Off. Gaz. Pat. Office 63 (October 21, 1997).
The requirement that the prior application
of a CPA be filed on or after June 8, 1995, has been eliminated,
and is applicable to all CPAs filed on or after December 1,
1997.
See Changes to Continued Prosecution Application
Practice; Interim Rule Notice, 63 Fed. Reg. 5732
(February 4, 1998); 1207 Off. Gaz. Pat. Office 83 (February
24, 1998).
The Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has revised the
Training and Implementation Guide to update the information contained
therein to reflect that the prior application of a CPA may be
filed before, as well as on or after, June 8, 1995. In addition,
the PTO has revised the filing transmittal forms, and developed
some additional questions and answers related to the rule change.
Therefore, the PTO is issuing this supplement to the Training
and Implementation Guide (notebook) and distributing it to the
Examining Corps and notebook purchasers of the Training and Implementation
Guide.
The supplemental materials and instructions for their
inclusion into the tab sections of the notebook are set forth
as follows:
The Application Filing Forms (transmittal forms) have been
revised (2/98) for the following reasons:
- to be more user friendly
- to remove the newly added Total Pages box, which had caused
confusion
- to more clearly identify what is needed for small entity status
- to provide space for the title of the application being filed
- to provide space for additional prior application identifying
data
- to contain a signature block (CPA form already contained
such a block)
- to state that a CPA can now be filed on any pending prior
application
- to clean up other miscellaneous matters
Added to the package is a revised Fee Transmittal form
which more clearly identifies what is needed for small entity status.
- Utility - PTO/SB/05: [PDF]
- Fee Transmittal Form - PTO/SB/17: [PDF]
- Design - PTO/SB/18: [PDF]
- Plant - PTO/SB/19: [PDF]
- CPA - PTO/SB/29: [PDF]
- Reissue - PTO/SB/50: [PDF]
Revised Questions and Answers,
including: original Q&A's; revised Q&A's 15-16,24,28,
31-32, & 75, and new Q&A's 149-170 on CPA practice and
other issues [PDF]
Finally, the CPA process flow chart referenced below
is now obsolete due to the above noted changes to CPA
practice.
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business system 
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