United States Patent and Trademark Office OG Notices: 28 June 2005
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Patent and Trademark Office
[Docket No.: 2003-P-018]
Notice of Availability of and Request for
Comments on Green Paper
Concerning Restriction Practice
AGENCY: United States Patent and Trademark Office, Commerce.
ACTION: Request for comments.
SUMMARY: The United States Patent and Trademark Office
(USPTO) has established a 21st Century Strategic Plan to transform the
USPTO into a quality focused, highly productive, responsive
organization supporting a market-driven intellectual property system.
As a part of this plan, the USPTO is conducting a study of its
restriction practice. As part of this study, the Office requested
public comments to help guide the study. After careful consideration of
the public comments and an internal review, the USPTO has prepared a
"Green Paper" describing and evaluating four options to reform
restriction practice suggested by various members of the public. Prior
to considering the desirability of drafting proposed legislation in a
"White Paper" on reforming restriction practice, the USPTO is
seeking public comment on the Green Paper.
DATES: Comment Deadline Date: To be ensured of consideration, written
comments must be received on or before August 5, 2005. No public hearing
will be held.
ADDRESSES: Comments should be sent by electronic mail message over the
Internet addressed to: unity.comments@uspto.gov. Comments may also be
submitted by mail addressed to: Mail Stop Comments - Patents,
Commissioner for Patents, P.O. Box 1450, Alexandria, VA, 22313-1450, or
by facsimile to (571) 273-7735, marked to the attention of
Robert A. Clarke. Although comments may be submitted by mail or facsimile,
the Office prefers to receive comments via the Internet. If comments are
submitted by mail, the Office prefers that the comments be submitted on a
DOS formatted 3 1/2 inch disk accompanied by a paper copy.
Comments may also be sent by electronic mail message over the Internet
via the Federal eRulemaking Portal. See the Federal eRulemaking Portal
Web site (http://www.regulations.gov) for additional
instructions on providing comments via the Federal eRulemaking Portal.
The comments will be available for public inspection at the Office of
the Commissioner for Patents, located in Madison East, Tenth Floor, 600
Dulany Street, Alexandria, Virginia, and will be available through
anonymous file transfer protocol (ftp) via the Internet (address:
http://www.uspto.gov). Because comments will be made
available for public inspection, information that is not desired to be
made public, such as an address or phone number, should not be included
in the comments.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Robert A. Clarke,
Senior Legal Advisor, Office of Patent Legal Administration, Office of
the Deputy Commissioner for Patent Examination Policy, by telephone at
(571) 272- 7735, by mail addressed to: Mail Stop Comments - Patents,
Commissioner for Patents, P.O. Box 1450, Alexandria, VA, 22313-1450, or
by facsimile to (571) 273-7735, marked to the attention of Robert A.
Clarke, or preferably via e-mail addressed to: robert.clarke@uspto.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The USPTO established a 21st
Century Strategic Plan to transform the USPTO into a more
quality-focused, highly productive, responsive organization supporting
a market-driven intellectual property system. As part of this plan, the
USPTO stated it would conduct a study of the changes needed to
implement a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) style Unity of Invention
standard in the United States. Prior to starting a detailed study, the
USPTO published a notice seeking public comment on a number of issues
to help guide the scope and content of a study on the adoption of a
Unity of Invention standard in the United States. See Request for
Comments on the Study of the Changes Needed to Implement a Unity of
Invention Standard in the United States, 68 FR 27536 (May 20,
2003), 1271 Off. Gaz. Pat. Office 98 (June 17, 2003). In
response to that notice, the USPTO received twenty-six (26) public
comments. Those public comments were posted on the USPTO's Internet Web
site.
The USPTO posted a notice summarizing the general nature of the
comments received as well as the next steps in the study in November of
2004. See Summary of Public Comments and the Restriction Reform
Options to be Studied by the United States Patent and Trademark
Office, 1277 Off. Gaz. Pat. Office 94 (Dec. 16, 2003)
(Notice). The Notice indicated that as a result of the comments
received, the USPTO would conduct a detailed business-case analysis on
four restriction reform options and prepare a revised timeline to
complete the study. The USPTO also replaced the public comments and
schedule to implement a PCT-style Unity of Invention standard with the
Notice.
The USPTO study included a review of hundreds of applications under
each of the studied options including how examination practices would
be impacted. This study also included review of the workflow, pendency
and overall ability of the USPTO to appropriately implement each of the
standards. The interim results of the study are provided in the Green
Paper for which we are requesting comment via this notice. The Green
Paper is available on the USPTO's Internet Web site
(http://www.uspto.gov).
May 27, 2005 JON W. DUDAS
Under Secretary of Commerce for
Intellectual Property and Director of the
United States Patent and Trademark Office