[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 159 (Thursday, August 16, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 49427-49428]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-20239]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark Office
[Docket No. PTO-P-2012-0033]
Notice of Roundtable on the Implementation of the First Inventor
to File Provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act
AGENCY: United States Patent and Trademark Office, Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of public meeting.
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SUMMARY: The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
published a notice of proposed rulemaking and a notice of proposed
examination guidelines to implement the first-inventor-to-file
provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA). The USPTO
plans to conduct a roundtable to obtain public input from organizations
and individuals on issues relating to the USPTO's proposed
implementation of the first-inventor-to-file provisions of the AIA. The
USPTO plans to invite a number of roundtable participants from among
patent user groups, practitioners, industry, independent inventor
organizations, academia, and government. The roundtable also is open
for any member of the public to provide input.
DATES: The roundtable will be held on Thursday, September 6, 2012,
beginning at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), and ending at 4:30
p.m. EDT.
The deadline for receipt of written comments in response to the
notice of proposed rulemaking and notice of proposed examination
guidelines to implement the first-inventor-to-file provisions of the
AIA is October 5, 2012.
ADDRESSES: The roundtable will be held at the USPTO in the Madison
Auditorium on the concourse level of the Madison Building, which is
located at 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22314.
Comments on the notice of proposed rulemaking should be sent by
electronic mail message over the Internet addressed to: [email protected]. Comments may also be submitted by postal mail
addressed to: Mail Stop Comments--Patents, Commissioner for Patents,
P.O. Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 22313-1450, marked to the attention of
Susy Tsang-Foster, Legal Advisor, Office of Patent Legal
Administration.
Comments on the proposed examination guidelines should be sent by
electronic mail message over the Internet addressed to: [email protected]. Comments may also be submitted by mail addressed
to: Mail Stop Comments--Patents, Commissioner for Patents, P.O. Box
1450, Alexandria, VA 22313-1450, marked to the attention of Mary C.
Till, Senior Legal Advisor, Office of Patent Legal Administration,
Office of the Deputy Commissioner for Patent Examination Policy.
Comments on the notice of proposed rulemaking and the proposed
examination guidelines 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.
Although comments may be submitted by postal mail, the Office
prefers to receive comments by electronic mail message over the
Internet because sharing comments with the public is more easily
accomplished. Electronic comments are preferred to be submitted in
plain text, but also may be submitted in ADOBE[supreg] portable
document format or MICROSOFT WORD[supreg] format. Comments not
submitted electronically should be
[[Page 49428]]
submitted on paper in a format that facilitates convenient digital
scanning into ADOBE[supreg] portable document format.
The comments will be available for public inspection at the Office
of the Commissioner for Patents, currently located in Madison East,
Tenth Floor, 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, Virginia. Comments also
will be available for viewing via the Office's Internet Web site
(http://www.uspto.gov). Because comments will be made available for
public inspection, information that the submitter does not desire to
make public, such as an address or phone number, should not be included
in the comments.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Janet Gongola, Patent Reform
Coordinator, by telephone at (571) 272-8734, or by electronic mail
message at [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The AIA was enacted into law on September
16, 2011. Public Law 112-29, 125 Stat. 284 (2011). Section 3 of the AIA
amends the patent laws to: (1) Convert the United States patent system
from a ``first to invent'' system to a ``first inventor to file''
system; (2) eliminate the requirement that a prior public use or sale
activity be ``in this country'' to be a prior art activity; (3) treat
U.S. patents and U.S. patent application publications as prior art as
of their earliest effective filing date, regardless of whether the
earliest effective filing date is based upon an application filed in
the U.S. or in another country; and (4) treat commonly owned patents
and patent application publications, or those resulting from a joint
research agreement, as being by the same inventive entity for purposes
of 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103. The changes in section 3 of the AIA take
effect on March 16, 2013.
The USPTO published a notice of proposed rulemaking and notice of
proposed examination guidelines on July 26, 2012, to implement the
first-inventor-to-file provisions of the AIA. See Changes to Implement
the First Inventor to File Provisions of the Leahy-Smith America
Invents Act, 77 FR 43742 (July 26, 2012), and Examination Guidelines
for Implementing the First-Inventor-to-File Provisions of the Leahy-
Smith America Invents Act, 77 FR 43759 (July 26, 2012). The notice of
proposed rulemaking proposes changes to the rules of practice in title
37 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) for consistency with, and
to address the examination issues raised by, the changes in section 3
of the AIA. The proposed examination guidelines set out the Office's
interpretation of 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 as amended by the AIA, and
advise the public and the Patent Examining Corps on how the changes to
35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 in the AIA impact the provisions of the Manual of
Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) pertaining to 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103.
As a part of the implementation of the AIA, the USPTO is conducting
a roundtable at the USPTO to obtain public input from organizations and
individuals on issues relating to the USPTO's implementation of the
first-inventor-to-file provisions of the AIA. The USPTO plans to invite
participants from patent user groups, practitioners, industry,
independent inventor organizations, academia, and government to provide
input. The roundtable likewise is open to any member of the public to
provide input. The USPTO will provide an agenda prior to the roundtable
in order to focus the discussion and enhance the efficiency of the
proceedings. The agenda will be posted on the USPTO's Internet Web site
at www.uspto.gov/AmericaInventsAct. The USPTO plans to make the
roundtable available via Web cast. Web cast information will be
available before the roundtable on the USPTO's Internet Web site at
www.uspto.gov/AmericaInventsAct.
Dated: August 3, 2012.
David J. Kappos,
Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of
the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
[FR Doc. 2012-20239 Filed 8-15-12; 8:45 am]
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