USPTO Revises the M.P.E.P.
Andrew B. FreisteinNovember 3, 2015
On October 29, 2015, the USPTO issued the Ninth Edition, Revision 07.2015, of the Manual of Patent Examination Procedure (M.P.E.P), which incorporates changes to the laws, rules, and practice necessitated by, or made as a result of, the Patent Law Treaties Implementation Act of 2012 (PLTIA), in addition to other revisions.
The Revision includes substantive revisions to all chapters of the M.P.E.P., except chapters 1200, 1400, 1600, 1900, 2000, and 2300; adds chapter 2900 entitled “International Design Applications”; adds chapter FPC entitled “Form Paragraphs Consolidated”; and updates the Table of Contents, Introduction, Subject Matter Index, and all Appendices except Appendix I and Appendix P.
In particular, chapters 800, 900, 1000, 1300, 1700, 1800, 2400, and 2500, which were not revised in the original Ninth Edition, 11.2013 (March 2014), also incorporate changes to the laws, rules, and practice necessitated by, or made as a result of, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA).
Chapter 900 was revised for changes necessitated by the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) system.
Chapter 2700 was revised to update the discussion of patent term adjustment (PTA) provisions in view of recent rules changes and court decisions.
Further, all revised chapters and Appendix R incorporate any changes necessitated by the nine patent-related final rule notices published between October 21, 2013 and May 19, 2015.
The USPTO posted a “Change Summary”, which is available at: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/mpep-0005-change-summary.html
The M.P.E.P. is available at: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/index.html