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2311 Declaration of Interference - 2300 Interference Proceedings
2311 Declaration of Interference
37 CFR 1.611 Declaration of interference.
(a) Notice of declaration of an interference will be sent to each party.
(b) When a notice of declaration is returned to the Patent and Trademark Office undelivered, or in any other circumstance where appropriate, an administrative patent judge may send a copy of the notice to a patentee named in a patent involved in an interference or the patentee's assignee of record in the Patent and Trademark Office or order publication of an appropriate notice in the Official Gazette.
(c) The notice of declaration shall specify:
(1) The name and residence of each party involved in the interference;
(2) The name and address of record of any attorney or agent of record in any application or patent involved in the interference;
(3) The name of any assignee of record in the Patent and Trademark Office;
(4) The identity of any application or patent involved in the interference;
(5) Where a party is accorded the benefit of the filing date of an earlier application, the identity of the earlier application;
(6) The count or counts and, if there is more than one count, the examiner's explanation why the counts define different patentable inventions;
(7) The claim or claims of any application or any patent which correspond to each count;
(8) The examiner's explanation as to why each claim designated as corresponding to a count is directed to the same patentable invention as the count and why each claim designated as not corresponding to any count is not directed to the same patentable invention as any count; and
(9) The order of the parties.
(d) The notice of declaration may also specify the time for:
(1) Filing a preliminary statement as provided in § 1.621(a);
(2) Serving notice that a preliminary statement has been filed as provided in § 1.621(b); and
(3) Filing preliminary motions authorized by § 1.633.
(e) Notice may be given in the Official Gazette that an interference has been declared involving a patent.
The papers necessary in declaring an interference are prepared at the Board.
Once an interference is declared involving an application, ex parte prosecution of the application is suspended, and the applicant need not reply to any USPTO action outstanding as of the date the interference is declared.
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