USPTO Presentation on Community Patent

To inform discussion at the Community Patent meeting on Feb 16, Robert Clark, Deputy Director, Office of Patent Legal Administration, provided an overview of existing rules and regulations that could be relevant to a community patent process. In particular, he discussed 37 CFR 1.99 and Section 1134.01 of the Patent Manual of Examining Procedure, which provide for limited submission of prior art for two months following publication of an application.  Prior art may be filed without commentary or annotation after paying a fee with the patent office.  While the existing regulatory framework does not yet permit open submission of prior art, it does lay the groundwork for third party contributions of the kind contemplated by this initiative.

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