Effective Date of the Final Rule
                     Entitled Rules to Implement Optional
                    Inter Partes Reexamination Proceedings

   The effective date of the final rule entitled Rules to
Implement Optional Inter Partes Reexamination Proceedings remains
February 5, 2001. See Rules to Implement Optional
Inter Partes Reexamination Proceedings, 65 Fed. Reg.
76755 (Dec. 7, 2000), 1242 Off. Gaz. Pat. Office 12 (Jan.
2, 2001).
   The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published
a notice in the Official Gazette on March 6, 2001, indicating that the
effective date of the final rule entitled Rules to Implement Optional
Inter Partes Reexamination Proceedings was delayed until April 6, 2001.
See Rules to Implement Optional Inter Partes Reexamination
Proceedings: Delay of Effective Date, 1244 Off. Gaz. Pat.
Office 14 (Mar. 6, 2001). Nevertheless, the effective date of the
final rule entitled Rules to Implement Optional Inter Partes
Reexamination Proceedings was not delayed until April 6, 2001, and no
notice to that effect was published in the Federal Register. Therefore,
the publication of a notice in the Official Gazette indicating that the
effective date of the final rule entitled Rules to Implement Optional
Inter Partes Reexamination Proceedings was delayed until April 6, 2001,
was in error and is withdrawn, and the effective date of the final rule
entitled Rules to Implement Optional Inter Partes Reexamination
Proceedings remains February 5, 2001.

March 8, 2001                                            NICHOLAS P. GODICI
                                                  Acting Under Secretary of
                                     Commerce for Intellectual Property and
                                                     Acting Director of the
                                  United States Patent and Trademark Office