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.