Go to MPEP - Table of Contents
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-7]
37 CFR 1.11 Files open to the public.
*****
(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.
*****
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(s)<, 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. **>Where a reissue application seeks to change the inventorship of a patent, the names of the inventors of record of the patent file are set forth in the announcement, not the filing receipt, which sets forth the names of the inventors that the reissue application is seeking to make of record upon reissue of the patent.<
IFW reissue application files are open to inspection by the general public by way of Public PAIR via the USPTO Internet site. In viewing the images of the files, members of the public will be able to view the entire content of the reissue application file history. To access Public PAIR, a member of the public would (A) go to the USPTO web site at http://www.uspto.gov, (B) click on **>"eBusiness,"< (C) **>click on "Status & View Documents,"< and (D) enter the reissue application number.
**>Where a "Notice to File Missing Parts of Reissue Application - Filing Date Granted" has been mailed by the Office for a reissue application, the reissue application will not necessarily be announced in the Official Gazette until all elements of the Notice to File Missing Parts have been complied with. This is because the information required by 37 CFR 1.11(b) for the Official Gazette announcement may be missing as indicated in the Notice to File Missing Parts.< A notice of a reissue application in the Official Gazette should be published **>before< 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.
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). **
Go to MPEP - Table of Contents