Drawings in Patent Application Publications and Patents
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has revised its
patent drawing review procedures to implement the eighteen--month
publication of patent applications. See Changes to Implement Eighteen--
Month Publication of Patent Applications, 65 Fed. Reg. 57023, 57026--27
(Sept. 20, 2000), 1239 Off. Gaz. Pat. Office 63, 65--66 (Oct. 10, 2000).
While the Office of Initial Patent Examination (OIPE) will perform an
initial review of drawings to see if the drawings are acceptable for
publication purposes by inspecting the drawings to see if they can be
effectively reproduced by digital image scanning, the standard of review
employed by OIPE is such that most drawings will be considered acceptable
(even if they are designated by applicant as "informal"). If OIPE requires
corrected drawings, the corrected drawings filed in reply to the
OIPE requirement will be included in any patent application publication or
patent. Otherwise, in most situations, patent application publications and patents will
reflect the quality of the drawings that are included with a patent
application on filing unless applicant voluntarily submits better quality
drawings as set forth below.
If applicant desires to have better drawings included in a patent
application publication than the drawings which were submitted with the
application on filing, applicant may submit replacement drawings on paper
within the later of one month from the filing date of the application or
fourteen months from the earliest filing date for which a benefit is sought
under title 35, United States Code. The replacement
paper drawings must be filed in an envelope addressed to BOX PGPUB
DRAWINGS, Commissioner for Patents, Washington D.C. 20231, with a petition
under 37 CFR 1.182 requesting entry of the drawings and the petition fee set forth
in 37 CFR 1.17(h), in the time period set forth above. If such drawings
are properly and timely submitted, the patent application publication will include the
replacement drawings. Replacement drawings that are received later than
this date may be included in the patent application publication, where
practicable, if the USPTO has not started the patent application
publication process.
Box PGPUB DRAWINGS should only be used for filing replacement drawings
for inclusion in a patent application publication. The replacement
drawings should be accompanied by a transmittal letter identifying the
application to which the replacement drawings are directed and
either an authorization to charge the petition fee or other payment of the
petition fee. Replacement drawings received in this special box will be
scanned and included in the electronic document which will be used for the
patent application publication. After the replacement drawings are scanned
for the patent application publication, they will be made of record in the
application file. Replacement drawings that are not mailed to BOX PGPUB
DRAWINGS, or are filed without the appropriate petition fee, or are
untimely submitted, will be routed to, and made of record in, the application
file without scanning and will not be included in the patent application
publication, but may be included in any patent. Replacement drawings for
other applications must be submitted in a different envelope.
An applicant may also provide a copy of the application, as amended
during prosecution (including better replacement drawings),
for publication via EFS. See 37 CFR 1.215(c) and Changes to Implement
Eighteen-Month Publication of Patent Applications, 65 Fed. Reg. 57024,
57036 and 57059, 1239 Off. Gaz. Pat. Office 63, 74 and 94.
Questions regarding this notice may be directed to Karin Tyson,
Senior Legal Advisor, Office of Patent Legal Administration, Office of the
Deputy Commissioner for Patent Examination Policy,
by telephone at (703) 306-3159, by facsimile at (703) 872-9411, or by
e-mail to karin.tyson@uspto.gov.
December 18, 2000 NICHOLAS P. GODICI
Commissioner for Patents