Patent applications received at
the USPTO are directed to the Office
of Initial Patent Examination (OIPE). Applications are opened,
sorted, given an application serial number, scanned, and checked
for parts required to allow examination.
If an application contains all required
parts,
it is deemed suitable for review and routed to the appropriate technology
center for examination.
If an application is missing
parts, OIPE generates correspondence to inform the customer
that it is missing parts and processing of the application is suspended until
either:
- the customer submits all required parts to make it suitable for examination or
- it is determined to be abandoned due to lack of timely action by the customer.
|