Appeal No. 2006-1279
Application No. 10/249,005
applications relied upon to give prior art effect under 35 U.S.C.
§ 102(e) to references applied in rejections. In a notice
published in the USPTO's Official Gazette on Nov. 23, 2004,
Stephen G. Kunin, then-Deputy Commissioner for Patent Examination
Policy, stated the following:
Due to the recent enhancement to Public PAIR, the
Office has ended the transitional practice of supplying
with Office actions a copy of any provisional
application relied upon to give prior art effect under
35 U.S.C. 102(e) to a reference applied in a rejection.
The purpose of the transitional practice, which began
in December of 2003, was to make it easier for
applicants to see the contents of such provisional
applications. Now that such provisional applications
can be viewed and/or printed using the Public PAIR
website, the transitional practice is no longer needed.
See "Most Publicly Available Provisional Applications Can Now be
Viewed Over the Internet," 1288 Off. Gaz. Pat. Office 169 (Nov.
23, 2004).
For U.S. patents that properly claim benefit under 35 U.S.C.
§ 119(e) to a provisional application, the critical reference
8
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007