Provides definitions related to the status of applications. Definitions discussed include the following statuses; new, rejected, amended, allowed, or in issue, abandoned, incomplete, and the term status inquiries.
203.01 New
MPEP SECTION SUMMARY
A “new” application is a nonprovisional application that has not yet received an action by the examiner. An amendment filed prior to the first Office Action does not alter the status of a “new” application.
203.02 Rejected
MPEP SECTION SUMMARY
A nonprovisional application which, during its prosecution in the examining group and before allowance, contains an unanswered examiner’s action is designated as a “rejected” application. Its status as a “rejected” application continues as such until acted upon by the applicant in reply to the examiner’s action (within the allotted reply period), or until it becomes abandoned.
203.03 Amended
MPEP SECTION SUMMARY
An “amended” nonprovisional application is one that having been acted on by the examiner, has in turn been acted on by the applicant in reply to the examiner’s action.
203.04 Allowed or in Issue
MPEP SECTION SUMMARY
An “allowed” nonprovisional application or an application “in issue” is one which has been examined and determined to meet all statutory requirements, and in which a notice of allowance has been sent to the applicant. Its status as an “allowed” application continues from the date of the notice of allowance until it issues as a patent, unless it is withdrawn from issue, or becomes abandoned for failure to pay the issue fee and any required publication fee.
203.05 Abandoned
MPEP SECTION SUMMARY
An abandoned application is, inter alia, one which is removed from the Office docket of pending applications:
through formal abandonment by the applicant or by the attorney or agent of record;
through failure of applicant to take appropriate action at some stage in the prosecution of a nonprovisional application;
for failure to pay the issue fee;
or
in the case of a provisional application, no later than 12 months after the filing date of the provisional application.
203.06 Incomplete
MPEP SECTION SUMMARY
An application that is not entitled to a filing date (e.g., for lacking some of the essential parts) is termed an incomplete application.
203.08 Status Inquiries
MPEP SECTION SUMMARY
Status information relating to patent applications is available through the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system.
