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good cause is shown therefor. The parties shall make known any and all right, title, and interest affecting the ownership of any application or patent involved or essential to the proceedings, not recorded in the Patent Office, when an interference is declared, and of changes in such right, title, or interest, made after the declaration of the interference and before the expiration of the time prescribed for seeking review of the decision in the interference.

35 U. S. C. 135. Interferences. Whenever an application is made for a patent which, in the opinion of the Commissioner, would interfere with any pending application, or with any unexpired patent, he shall give notice thereof to the applicants, or applicant and patentee, as the case may be. The question of priority of invention shall be determined by a board of patent interferences (consisting of three examiners of interferences) whose decision, if adverse to the claim of an applicant, shall constitute the final refusal by the Patent Office of the claims involved, and the Commissioner may issue a patent to the applicant who is adjudged the prior inventor. A final judgment adverse to a patentee from which no appeal or other review has been or can be taken or had shall constitute cancellation of the claims involved from the patent, and notice thereof shall be endorsed on copies of the patent thereafter distributed by the Patent Office.

A claim which is the same as, or for the same or substantially the same subject matter as, a claim of an issued patent may not be made in any application unless such a claim is made prior to one year from the date on which the patent was granted.

202. Preparation for interference between applications; preliminary inquiry of junior applicant. In order to ascertain whether any question of priority arises between applications which appear to interfere and are otherwise ready to be prepared for interference, any junior applicant may be called upon to state in writing under oath the date and the character of the earliest fact or act, susceptible of proof, which can be relied upon to establish conception of the invention under consideration for the purpose of establishing priority of invention. The statement filed in compliance with this section will be retained by the Patent Office separate from the application file and if an interference is declared will be opened simultaneously with the preliminary statement of the party filing the same. In case the junior applicant makes no reply within the time specified, not less than thirty days, or if the earliest date alleged is subsequent to the filing date of the senior party, the interference ordinarily will not be declared.

203. Preparation for interference between applications; suggestion of claims for interference. (a) Before the declaration of interference, it must be determined that there is common patentable subject matter in the cases of the respective parties, patentable to

each of the respective parties, subject to the determination of the question of priority. Claims in the same language, to form the counts of the interference, must be present or be presented, in each application.

(b) When the claims of two or more applications differ in phraseology, but relate to substantially the same patentable subject matter, the examiner shall, if it has been determined that an interference should be declared, suggest to the parties such claims as are necessary to cover the common invention in the same language. The examiner shall send copies of the letter suggesting claims to the applicant and to the assignee, as well as to the attorney or agent of record in each case. The parties to whom the claims are suggested will be required to make those claims (i. e., present the suggested claims in their applications by amendment) within a specified time, not less than 30 days, in order that an interference may be declared. The failure or refusal of any applicant to make any claim suggested within the time specified, shall be taken without further action as a disclaimer of the invention covered by that claim unless the time be extended upon a proper showing.

(c) The suggestion of claims for purpose of interference will not stay the period for response to an Office action which may be running against an application, unless the claims are made by the applicant within the time specified for making the claims.

(d) When an applicant presents a claim in his application (not suggested by the examiner as specified in this rule) which is copied from some other application, either for purpose of interference or otherwise, he must so state, at the time he presents the claim and identify the other application.

204. Interference with a patent; affidavit by junior applicant. (a) The fact that one of the parties has already obtained a patent will not prevent an interference. Although the Commissioner has no power to cancel a patent, he may grant another patent for the same invention to a person who, in the interference, proves himself to be the prior inventor.

(b) When the filing date or effective filing date of an applicant is subsequent to the filing date of a patentee, the applicant, before an interference will be declared, shall file an affidavit that he made the invention in controversy in this country, before the filing date of the patentee, or that his acts in this country with respect to the invention were sufficient under the law to establish priority of invention relative to the filing date of the patentee; and, when required, the applicant shall file an affidavit (of the nature specified in rule 131) setting forth facts which would prima facie entitle him to an award of priority relative to the filing date of the patentee.

205. Interference with a patent; copying claims from patent. (a) Before an interference will be declared with a patent, the applicant must present in his application copies of all the claims of the patent which also define his invention and such claims must be patentable in the application. If claims cannot be properly presented in his application owing to the inclusion of an immaterial limitation or variation, an interference may be declared after copying the claims excluding such immaterial limitation or variation.

(b) Where an applicant presents a claim copied or substantially copied from a patent, he must at the time he presents the claim, identify the patent, give the number of the patented claim, and specifically apply the terms of the copied claim to his own disclosure, unless the claim is copied in response to a suggestion by the Office. The examiner will call to the Commissioner's attention any instance of the filing of an application or the presentation of an amendment copying or substantially copying claims from a patent without calling attention to that fact and identifying the patent.

206. Interference with a patent; claims improperly copied. (a) Where claims are copied from a patent and the examiner is of the opinion that the applicant can make only some of the claims so copied, he shall notify the applicant to that effect, state why he is of the opinion the applicant cannot make the other claims and state further that the interference will be promptly declared. The applicant may proceed under rule 233, if he desires to further contest his right to make the claims not included in the declaration of the interference.

(b) Where the examiner is of the opinion that none of the claims can be made, he shall state in his action why the applicant cannot make the claims and set a time limit, not less than 30 days, for reply. If, after response by the applicant, the rejection is made final, a similar time limit shall be set for appeal. Failure to respond or appeal, as the case may be, within the time fixed will, in the absence of a satisfactory showing, be deemed a disclaimer of the invention claimed.

207. Preparation of interference notices and statements. (a) When an interference is found to exist and the applications are in condition therefor, the primary examiner shall forward the files to the Examiners of Interferences, together with notices of interference to be sent to all the parties (as specified in rule 209) disclosing the name and residence of each party and those of his attorney or agent, and of any assignee, and, if any party be a patentee, the date and number of the patent. The notices shall also specify the issue of the interference, which shall be clearly and concisely defined in only as

many counts as may be necessary to define the interfering subject matter (but in the case of an interference with a patent all the claims of the patent which can be made by the applicant should constitute the counts), and shall indicate the claim or claims of the respective cases corresponding to the count or counts. If the application or patent of a party included in the interference is a division or continuation of a prior application and the examiner has determined that it is entitled to the filing date of such prior application, the notice to such party shall so state.

(b) The primary examiner shall also forward a statement for the Examiners of Interferences disclosing the applications involved in interference, fully identified, arranged in the inverse chronological order of the filing of the completed applications, and also disclosing the count or counts in issue and the ordinals of the corresponding claims, the name and residence of any assignee, and the names and addresses of all attorneys or agents, both principal and associate.

Whenever it

208. Conflicting parties having same attorney. shall be found that two or more parties whose interests appear to be in conflict are represented by the same attorney or agent, the examiner shall notify each of said principal parties and the attorney or agent of this fact, and shall also call the matter to the attention of the Commissioner. If conflicting interests exist, the same attorney or agent or his associates will not be recognized to represent either of the parties whose interests are in conflict without the consent of the other party or in the absence of special circumstances requiring such representation, in further proceedings before the Patent Office involving the matter or application or patent in which the conflicting interests exist.

209. Declaration of interference; mailing of notices. (a) When the notices of interference are in proper form, an examiner of interferences shall assign a number to the interference and add to the notices a designation of the time within which the preliminary statements required by rule 215 must be filed, and shall, pro forma, institute and declare the interference by forwarding the notices to the several parties to the proceeding.

(b) The notices of interference shall be forwarded by the Examiner of Interferences to all the parties, in care of their attorneys or agents; a copy of the notices will also be sent the patentees in person and, if the patent in interference has been assigned, to the assignees.

(c) When the notices sent in the interest of a patent are returned to the Office undelivered, or when one of the parties resides abroad

and his agent in the United States is unknown, additional notice may be given by publication in the Official Gazette for such period of time as the Commissioner may direct.

211. Jurisdiction of interference. Upon the institution and declaration of the interference, as provided in rule 209, the Examiners of Interferences will take jurisdiction of the same, which will then become a contested case.

The primary examiner will retain jurisdiction of the case until the declaration of interference is made. See rule 237 (b).

212. Suspension of ex parte prosecution. On declaration of the interference, ex parte prosecution of an application is suspended, and amendments and other papers received during the pendency of the interference will not be entered or considered without the consent of the Commissioner, except as provided by these rules. Proposed amendments directed toward the declaration of an interference with another party will be considered to the extent necessary. Ex parte prosecution as to specified matters may be continued concurrently with the interference, on order from or with the consent of the Commissioner.

INTERFERENCES: PRELIMINARY STATEMENT

215. Preliminary statement required. Each party to the interference will be required to file a concise preliminary statement giving certain facts and dates, on or before a date fixed by the Office. The preliminary statement must be signed and sworn to by the inventor but in appropriate circumstances, as when the inventor is dead or a showing is made of inability to obtain a statement from the inventor, the preliminary statement may be made by the personal representative or assignee or by someone authorized or entitled to make the statement and having knowledge of the facts.

The preliminary

216. Contents of the preliminary statement. statement must state that the applicant made the invention set forth by each count of the interference, and whether the invention was made in the United States or abroad.

(a) When the invention was made in the United States the preliminary statement must set forth as to the invention defined by each count the following facts relating to conception of the invention, and reduction of the invention to practice;

(1) The date upon which the first drawing of the invention was made; if a drawing of the invention has not been made prior to the filing date of the application, it must be so stated.

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