(146)               Treatment of Non-Conforming Requests
                     to Revoke or Invalidate U.S. Patents

   The Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has received an extremely 
large number of contemporaneously filed form letters requesting that 
certain U.S. patents be revoked or invalidated. These form letters, while 
identifying U.S. patents which are believed to be invalid, do not include 
any prior art patents and/or printed publications to support such belief.
   
   The bases for challenging patentability within the PTO are:
   
   (1) Submission of a protest under 37 CFR 1.291;
   (2) Submission of prior art under 35 U.S.C. 301; and
   (3) Submission of a third party reexamination request under
       35 U.S.C. 302.
   
   These form letters do not comport with any one of the bases for
challenging patentability within the PTO. To respond individually to
these form letters (by pointing out deficiencies and forwarding them to
the patentee) would be unduly burdensome to the PTO. Therefore, these
form letters will not be responded to individually and will not be
placed in the patent files.
   
August 17, 1998                                            STEPHEN G. KUNIN
                                              Deputy Assistant Commissioner
                                             For Patent Policy and Projects

                                 [1214 OG 77]