The Notice explains that the Office recently transitioned to a new pre-examination system to generate notices, including application filing receipts, as part of its "ongoing efforts to automate and enhance patent examination practices to support robust and reliable patent rights and speed the issuance of patents," but that the Office discovered that with this transition, filing receipts issued for certain patent applications processed between March 2022 and mid-October 2022 did not include foreign filing license information.  The Office notes that upon discovering the problem,  it took corrective steps, which consisted of updating the pre-examination system so that it generated appropriate filing receipts beginning on October 18, 2022, and issuing corrected or replacement filing receipts in October 2022 for applications for which a foreign filing license had been granted.

The Notice also indicates that a "small number" of filing receipts for provisional applications and design applications incorrectly showed a projected publication date, even though provisional and design applications are not subject to publication under the 18-month application publication provisions.  The Office noted that this issue had also been rectified, adding that "regardless of the indication of publication, no provisional or design applications have been or will be published as a patent application publication under 37 CFR 1.215."  Nevertheless, the Office also noted that Applicants could request a corrected filing receipt if a projected publication date for a provisional or design application is listed on the filing receipt.

In the Notice, the Office advises Applicants to review filing receipts issued for new patent applications between March 2022 and mid-October 2022 to confirm that those filing receipts include a granted foreign filing license notification and accurate publication information, and to request a corrected filing receipt if they believe the application should have cleared the security review process, and the USPTO has not yet issued a corrected or replacement receipt with a granted foreign filing license notification.  Noting that 37 C.F.R. § 1.183 permits the Office to waive any requirement of its regulations that is not a requirement of the patent statutes, the Notice also indicates that "if an applicant files a petition for a retroactive foreign filing license due to the issuance of a filing receipt without such a license between March 2022 and mid-October 2022, the petition filing fee will be waived sua sponte if requested in the petition."