Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP)

The MPEP staff organization works directly for the Deputy Commissioner for Patent Examination Policy and provides staff assistance in developing and formulating new guidelines, examining practices and procedures as well as revising existing guidelines, practices and procedures. The MPEP staff is responsible for updating the MPEP and the form paragraphs used by the examining corps. The MPEP staff is also responsible for ensuring that revised policies and procedures are appropriately disseminated to Office personnel through revisions to the MPEP, Federal Register or Official Gazette notices, or other official announcements. The MPEP staff also handles inquiries from Office personnel and the public requesting assistance in properly interpreting existing practices and procedures.

The MPEP

The Manual is published to provide USPTO patent examiners, applicants, attorneys, agents and representatives of applicants with a reference work on the practices and procedures relative to the prosecution of patent applications before the USPTO. The MPEP contains instructions to patent examiners, as well as other material in the nature of information and interpretation, and outlines the current procedures which the patent examiners are required or authorized to follow in appropriate cases in the examination of a patent application. The MPEP does not have the force of law or the force of the rules. The MPEP is available in both paper and electronic form.

Suggestions for improving the form and content of the MPEP are always welcome. They should be addressed to: Mail Stop MPEP, Commissioner for Patents, P.O. Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 22313-1450 or sent via e-mail to: MPEP Feedback@uspto.gov.

Trilateral

The USPTO in cooperation with the European Patent Office (EPO) and the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) have been participating in projects within the Trilateral framework since the 1980s. Some of the current projects include the comparative study on biotechnology patent practices and the concurrent search program. These documents are available on the Trilateral Web site (TWS).

Other Useful Information:

  >> Law / Rule Changes

  >> Examination guidelines; Examiner training materials including:

•Computer-related inventions and Business methods
•Reexamination
•35 U.S.C. 101 subject matter eligibility
•35 U.S.C. 101 utility
•35 U.S.C. 102 novelty
•35 U.S.C. 103 obviousness
•35 U.S.C. 112, First Para. written description
•35 U.S.C. 112, Sixth Para. means or step-plus-function claim limitation