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an appeal to the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals or by a civil action in a United States District Court.

(e) When it has been decided that a patent is to be granted, the applicant is sent a notice of allowance and if the final fee, due within six months, is paid, the patent is granted in due course. If the final fee is not paid, the patent is not granted, but the fee may be accepted late upon petition to the Commissioner accompanied by a petition fee and a verified statement provided the delay does not exceed one year. (f) The prosecution of an application for patent must be conducted in writing and the personal attendance of applicants is not required and is unnecessary. Applicants may arrange for interviews with examiners at such times within office hours as the examiners may designate.

(g) An applicant for a patent may prosecute his own case, but he is entitled to be, and usually is, represented by an attorney or agent. No person may represent applicants before the Patent Office unless he is registered in the Patent Office as an attorney or agent, or authorized and recognized to prosecute a particular case.

RULES OF PRACTICE

The following rules governing the practice and procedure in the Patent Office with respect to applications for patent and related matters, and the recognition of attorneys and agents, were adopted and promulgated, effective March 1, 1949, after publication of proposed rules and a public hearing, and consideration of the material and arguments submitted, and have been amended from time to time since that date. The present edition contains the amendments effective January 1, 1953, which were made in view of the new patent law, Public Law 593, 82d Congress, 2d Session, chap. 950, 66 Stat. 792, and subsequent amendments to August 15, 1955. The sections of Title 35, United States Code, inserted at appropriate places are sections of Title 35 as revised and enacted by the new patent law.

These rules and the various amendments were published in the Federal Register. In the Federal Register and in the Code of Federal Regulations these rules are Part 1 of Title 37, Patents, Trademarks and Copyrights, and the individual rules, there called sections, are numbered with the part number and a decimal point prefixed to the numbers to the rules here used; thus section 1.33 in the Federal Register and Code of Federal Regulations is here termed rule 33. The complete arrangement of all the Patent Office rules in the Code of Federal Regulations is as follows:

Title 37-Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights

Chapter 1-Patent Office, Department of Commerce

Part 1-Rules of Practice in Patent Cases

Part 2-Rules of Practice in Trademark Cases

Part 3-Forms for Patent Cases

Part 4-Forms for Trademark Cases

Part 5-Secrecy of Certain Inventions and Licenses to File Applications in Foreign Countries

Part 6-Classification of Goods and Services Under the Trademark Act

Part 7-Register of Government Interests in Patents.

GENERAL INFORMATION AND CORRESPONDENCE

1. All communications to be addressed to The Commissioner of Patents. All letters and other communications intended for the Patent Office must be addressed to "The Commissioner of Patents," Wash

ington 25, D. C. When appropriate, a letter may be marked for the attention of a particular officer or individual.

NOTE: Rules 1 to 26 are applicable to trademark cases as well as to patent cases except for provisions specifically directed to patents.

2. Business to be transacted in writing. All business with the Patent Office should be transacted in writing. The personal attendance of applicants or their attorneys or agents at the Patent Office is unnecessary. The action of the Patent Office will be based exclusively on the written record in the Office. No attention will be paid to any alleged oral promise, stipulation, or understanding in relation to which there is disagreement or doubt.

3. Business to be conducted with decorum and courtesy. Applicants and their attorneys or agents are required to conduct their business with the Patent Office with decorum and courtesy. Papers presented in violation of this requirement will be submitted to the Commissioner and will be returned by his direct order. Complaints against examiners and other employees must be made in communications separate from other papers.

4. Nature of correspondence. (a) Correspondence with the Patent Office comprises (1) correspondence relating to services and facilities of the Office, such as general inquiries, requests for publications supplied by the Office, orders for printed copies of patents or trademark registrations, orders for copies of records, transmission of assignments for recording, and the like, and (2) correspondence in and relating to a particular application or other proceeding in the Office. See particularly the rules relating to the filing and prosecution of applications or other proceedings.

(b) Since each application file should be complete in itself, a separate copy of every paper to be filed in an application should be furnished for each application to which the paper pertains, even though the contents of the papers filed in two or more applications may be identical.

(c) Since different matters may be considered by different branches or sections of the Patent Office, each distinct subject, inquiry, or order should be contained in a separate letter to avoid confusion and delay in answering letters dealing with different subjects.

5. Identification of application, patent or registration. (a) When a letter concerns an application for patent, it should state the name of the applicant, the title of the invention, the serial number of the application, the date of filing the same, and, if known, the division to which it has been assigned (see rule 55).

(b) When the letter concerns a patent, it should state the number and date of issue of the patent, the name of the patentee, and the title of the invention.

(c) A letter relating to a trademark application should identify it as such and by the name of the applicant and the serial number and filing date of the application. A letter relating to a registered trademark should identify it by the name of the registrant and by the number and date of the certificate.

6. Receipt of letters and papers. (a) Letters and other papers received in the Patent Office are stamped with the date of receipt. No papers are received in the Patent Office on Saturdays, Sundays or holidays within the District of Columbia.

(b) Mail placed in the Patent Office pouch up to midnight on weekdays, excepting Saturdays and holidays, by the post office at Washington, D. C., serving the Patent Office, is considered as having been received in the Patent Office on the day it was so placed in the pouch.

(c) In addition to being mailed or delivered by hand during office hours, letters and other papers may be deposited up to midnight in a box provided at the guard's desk at the 14th and E Street entrance of the Patent Office on weekdays except Saturdays and holidays, and all papers deposited therein are considered as received in the Patent Office on the day of deposit.

7. Times for taking action; expiration on Saturday, Sunday, or holiday. Whenever periods of time are specified in these rules in days, calendar days are intended unless otherwise indicated. When the day, or the last day, fixed by statute or by or under these rules for taking any action or paying any fee falls on Saturday, Sunday, or on a holiday within the District of Columbia, the action may be taken, or the fee paid, on the next succeeding day which is not a Saturday, Sunday, or a holiday.

35 U. S. C. 21. Day for taking action falling on Saturday, Sunday, or holiday. When the day, or the last day, for taking any action or paying any fee in the United States Patent Office falls on Saturday, Sunday, or a holiday within the District of Columbia, the action may be taken, or the fee paid, on the next succeeding secular or business day.

NOTE: The following days are holidays in the District of Columbia: New Year's Day, January 1; Washington's Birthday, February 22; Memorial Day, May 30; Independence Day, July 4; Labor Day (first Monday in September); Veterans' Day, November 11; Thanksgiving Day (fourth Thursday in November); Christmas Day, December 25; Inauguration Day, January 20 (every 4 years).

RECORDS AND FILES OF THE PATENT OFFICE

11. Patent files open to the public. After a patent has been issued, the specification, drawings, and all papers relating to the case in the file of the patent are open to inspection by the general public, and copies may be furnished upon paying the fee therefor. The file of any terminated interference involving a patent, or an application on which a patent has subsequently issued, is similarly open to public inspection and procurement of copies.

See trademark rule 2.27 for trademark files.

12. Assignment records open to public inspection. The assignment records, including digests and indexes, are open to public inspection and copies of any instrument recorded may be obtained upon payment of the fee therefor. An order for a copy of an assignment should give the identification of the record. If identified only by the name of the patentee and number of the patent, or in the case of a trademark registration by the name of the registrant and number of the registration, or by name of the applicant and serial number of the application, an extra charge will be made for the time consumed in making a search for such assignment.

13. Copies and certified copies. (a) Copies of patents and trademark registrations and of any records, books, papers, or drawings belonging to the Patent Office and open to the public, will be furnished by the Patent Office to any person, and copies of other records or papers will be furnished to persons entitled thereto, upon payment of the fee therefor.

(b) Such copies will be authenticated by the seal of the Patent Office and certified by the Commissioner, or in his name attested by an officer of the Patent Office authorized by the Commissioner, upon payment of the fee for the authentication certificate in addition to the fee for the copies.

(a) Pending pat

14. Patent applications preserved in secrecy. ent applications are preserved in secrecy. No information will be given by the Office respecting the filing by any particular person of an application for a patent, the pendency of any particular case before it, or the subject matter of any particular application, nor will access be given to or copies furnished of any pending application or papers relating thereto, without written authority of the applicant, or his assignee or attorney or agent, unless it shall be necessary to the proper conduct of business before the Office or as provided by these rules.

(b) Abandoned applications are likewise not open to public inspection, except that if an application referred to in a United States patent

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