Office Patent Trial Practice Guide, November 2019 Edition

• Published date: 21 November 2019
• Citation: 84 FR 64280
• Record Number: 2019-25281
• Section: Notices
• Court: Patent And Trademark Office

Federal Register, Volume 84 Issue 225 (Thursday, November 21, 2019)

[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 225 (Thursday, November 21, 2019)]
                [Notices]
                [Page 64280]
                From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
                [FR Doc No: 2019-25281]
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                DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
                Patent and Trademark Office
                [Docket No. PTO-P-2019-0039]
                Office Patent Trial Practice Guide, November 2019 Edition
                AGENCY: United States Patent and Trademark Office, Commerce.
                ACTION: Notice.
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                SUMMARY: The United States Patent and Trademark Office (``Office'') is
                issuing a consolidated Office Patent Trial Practice Guide (``Practice
                Guide'') to incorporate prior updates to the original August 2012
                Practice Guide. The Office publishes the Practice Guide to provide
                practitioners with guidance on typical procedures and timeframes for
                taking action in post-grant trials implemented following the Leahy-
                Smith America Invents Act (``AIA''), as well as to bring greater
                procedural consistency among panels of the Patent Trial and Appeal
                Board (``Board'').
                FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael Tierney and William Fink, Vice
                Chief Administrative Patent Judges, by telephone at (571) 272-9797.
                SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Office is issuing a consolidated
                Practice Guide to incorporate prior updates to the original August 2012
                Practice Guide. The Office previously issued updates to the original
                2012 Practice Guide in August 2018 and July 2019. The consolidated
                Practice Guide includes no substantive changes from the prior updates
                or current Board practices. The topic of such revisions and updates
                include:
                 Institution of trial after SAS Institute Inc. v. Iancu,
                138 S. Ct. 1348 (2018);
                 use of sur-replies in lieu of observations;
                 how parties may contact the Board to request an initial
                conference call;
                 use of word counts;
                 updates to the sample scheduling order for derivation
                proceedings; and
                 updates to the default protective order.
                 The November 2019 edition of the Practice Guide may be viewed or
                downloaded from the USPTO website at https://www.uspto.gov/TrialPracticeGuideConsolidated. The earlier Practice Guide update from
                July 2019 is available at https://www.uspto.gov/TrialPracticeGuide3 and
                the Practice Guide update from August 2018 is available at https://go.usa.gov/xU7GP. The full version of the original August 2012 Practice
                Guide continues to be available for reference on the USPTO website at
                https://go.usa.gov/xU7GK.
                 Comments regarding the Practice Guide can be sent to
                [email protected].
                 Dated: November 14, 2019.
                Andrei Iancu,
                Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of
                the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
                [FR Doc. 2019-25281 Filed 11-20-19; 8:45 am]
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