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Excerpt from Patents / Post-Grant Procedures
USPTO Releases Proposed Rules and Fees for Post-Grant Procedures
by Bernard Codd
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or PTO) recently released proposed rules and fees for the post-grant procedures authorized by the America Invents Act (AIA). The new post-grant procedures, which will take effect on September 16, 2012, include supplemental examination, inter partes review, post-grant review and a transitional program for covered business method patents. In addition, the USPTO also proposed significantly increased fees for ex parte reexamination.
Supplemental Examination
Supplemental examination can only be requested by the patent owner. Under the proposed rules, each request for supplemental examination would be limited to 10 items of information. In addition, each request must include an identification of each aspect of the patent to be examined; identification of each issue raised by each item of information; a separate detailed explanation for each identified issue; an explanation of how each item of information is relevant to each aspect to be examined and of how each item of information raises each of the identified issues. The patent owner must submit a copy of each item of information and a summary of the relevant portions of any submitted document over 50 pages in length.
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