Chapter 1300: Allowance and Issue
Once the decision to allow an application to patent has been made by the PTO, a Notice of Allowance will be sent out to the applicant. The applicant will then have three months to pay the issue fee. Once the issue fee is paid, the applicant will then be sent a copy of the official patent papers. This chapter discusses the details of these proceedings and the variations that may occur such as; withdrawing from issue, the term lengths of various patents and what happens if the issue fee is not paid on time.
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The Executive Summaries from the main chapter sections have been copied here for your convenience (subsections are not included here). They will help you remember what each main section of the Guidebook (MPEP) covers as you answer the questions from the quizzes above.
When an application is in condition for allowance, the application will be considered special. Prompt action will be taken to require the correction of formal matters.
This section covers the final review and preparation of the application for issue. For instance, a Notice of Allowability is sent to the applicant when the application has been allowed and is expected to patent.
In addition, this section covers how to make minor corrections and the examiner's statement of the reasons for allowance.
Reference to an issue batch number is no longer necessary since the Office no longer stores and tracks applications according to issue batches. In the case where a Notice of Allowance is returned and a new notice is sent, the date of sending the notice must be changed in the file to agree with the date of such re-mailing. The applicant must amend, assign, or petition an application within one month after the mailing of the Notice of Allowance.
Applications under “secrecy order” will not be issued, a D-10 Notice instead of a Notice of Allowance will be sent to the applicant. “Secrecy orders” may be withdrawn after a period of time and a normal allowance will proceed.
In a sense, paying the issue fee is the final hurdle for an applicant. After receiving the coveted Notice of Allowance, the applicant must pay the fee required for the application to issue. Once this fee is paid, the applicant will receive letters stating he or she has been granted a bona fide patent.
This section provides further details for the issue fee including the failure to pay the issue fee including examples when the issue fee will be late and when it will not be late. In addition, any amendment filed pursuant to 37 C.F.R. 1.312 must be filed before or with the payment of the issue fee.
This section covers the withdrawal of an application from issue. An application may be withdrawn from issuance through a petition or by filing a continuing application. Both processes are discussed along with a brief discussion of times when rejection after allowance are possible.
This section covers details regarding the issuance of a patent. It covers patent terms and extensions and late payment of the issue fee. 37 C.F.R. 1.317 comes into effect only when the amount paid is insufficient because there was a price increase when the fee was received by the PTO.
Regarding patent terms, they begin on the date the patent issues and they end 20 years from the date the patent application was filed for utility and plant patents. They end 14 years from the application filing date for design patents.
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