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
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