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1430 Reissue Files Open to the Public and, Notice of Filing Reissue Announced in, - 1400 Correction of Patents
1430 Reissue Files Open to the Public and, Notice of Filing Reissue Announced in, Official Gazette [R-2]
37 CFR 1.11 Files open to the public.
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(b) All reissue applications, all applications in which the Office has accepted a request to open the complete application to inspection by the public, and related papers in the application file, are open to inspection by the public, and copies may be furnished upon paying the fee therefor. The filing of reissue applications, other than continued prosecution applications under § 1.53(d) of reissue applications, will be announced in the Official Gazette. The announcement shall include at least the filing date, reissue application and original patent numbers, title, class and subclass, name of the inventor, name of the owner of record, name of the attorney or agent of record, and examining group to which the reissue application is assigned.
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Under 37 CFR 1.11(b) all reissue applications filed after March 1, 1977, are open to inspection by the general public, and copies may be furnished upon paying the fee therefor. The filing of reissue applications (except for continued prosecution applications (CPA's) filed under 37 CFR 1.53(d)) will be announced in the Official Gazette. The announcement gives interested members of the public an opportunity to submit to the examiner information pertinent to the patentability of the reissue application. The announcement includes the filing date, reissue application and original patent numbers, title, class and subclass, name of the inventor, name of the owner of record, name of the attorney or agent of record, and the Technology Center (TC) to which the reissue application is initially assigned. A TC Director or other appropriate Office official may, under appropriate circumstances, postpone access to or the making of copies of a reissue application, such as, for example, to avoid interruption of the examination or other review of the application by an examiner. Those reissue applications already on file prior to March 1, 1977 are not automatically open to inspection, but a liberal policy is followed by the Office of Patent Legal Administration and by the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (see MPEP § 1002.02(b), item 19) in granting petitions for access to such applications. >(For IFW reissues, see IFW Manual for the manner in which such electronic files will be made available to the public.)<
A notice of a reissue application in the Official Gazette should be published prior to any examination of the application. If an inadvertent failure to publish notice of the filing of the reissue application in the Official Gazette is recognized later in the examination, action should be taken to have the notice published as quickly as possible, and action on the application may be delayed until two months after the publication, allowing for any protests to be filed. >For a discussion of protests, see MPEP Chapter 1900.<
The filing of a continued prosecution application (CPA) under 37 CFR 1.53(d) of a reissue application will not be announced in the Official Gazette. Although the filing of a CPA of a reissue application constitutes the filing of a reissue application, the announcement of the filing of such CPA would be redundant in view of the announcement of the filing of the prior reissue application in the Official Gazette and the fact that the same application number and file will continue to be used for the CPA.
If applicant files a Request for Continued Examination (RCE) of the reissue application under 37 CFR 1.114 (which can be filed on or after May 29, 2000 for a reissue application filed on or after June 8, 1995), such filing will not be announced in the Official Gazette. An RCE continues prosecution of the existing reissue application and is not a filing of a new application.
For those reissue applications filed on or after March 1, 1977, the following procedure will be observed:
(A) The filing of all reissue applications, except for CPAs filed under 37 CFR 1.53(d), >(note that effective July 14, 2003, CPA practice has been eliminated as to utility and plant application)< will be announced in the Official Gazette and will include certain identifying data as specified in 37 CFR 1.11(b). Any member of the general public may request access to a particular reissue application filed after March 1, 1977. >(For IFW Processing, see IFW Manual.)< Since no record of such request is intended to be kept, an oral request will suffice.
(B) The reissue application files will be maintained in the TCs and inspection thereof will be supervised by TC personnel. Although no general limit is placed on the amount of time spent reviewing the files, the Office may impose limitations, if necessary, e.g., where the application is actively being processed. >(For IFW Processing, see IFW Manual.)<
(C) Where the reissue application has left the TC for administrative processing, requests for access should be directed to the appropriate supervisory personnel where the application is currently located. >(For IFW Processing, see IFW Manual.)<
(D) Requests for copies of papers in the reissue application file must be in writing and addressed to the ** >Mail Stop Document Services, Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, P.O. Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 22313-1450. Such requests< may be either mailed or delivered to the Office Customer Service Window (See MPEP § 502). The price for copies made by the Office is set forth in 37 CFR 1.19.
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