permitted, except on the written authority of the head of the department or agency which submitted the instrument and requested secrecy, and the approval of such authority by the Commissioner of Patents. No instrument or record other than the one specified may be examined, and the examina

tion must take place in the presence of a designated official of the Patent Office. When the department or agency which submitted an instrument no longer requires secrecy with respect to that instrument, it will be recorded or registered anew in the appropriate part of the register which is not secret.

1.195. Affidavits after appeal.

1.196. Decision by the Board of Appeals.

1.197. Action following decision.

1.198. Reopening after decision.

INTERFERENCES: DEFINITION, PREPARATION, DECLARATION 1.201. Definition; when declared.

1.202. Preparation for interference between applications; preliminary inquiry of junior applicant. 1.203. Preparation for interference between applications; suggestion of claims for interference.

1.204. Interference with a patent; affidavit by junior applicant.

1.205. Interference with a patent; copying claims from patent.

1.206. Interference with a patent; claims improperly copied.

1.207. Preparation of interference notices and statements. 1.208. Conflicting parties having same attorney. 1.209. Declaration of interference; mailing of notices. 1.211. Jurisdiction of interference.

1.212. Suspension of ex parte prosecution.

INTERFERENCES: PRELIMINARY STATEMENT

1.215. Preliminary statement required.
1.216. Contents of the preliminary statement.

1.217. Contents of the preliminary statement; invention

made abroad.

1.218. Time for filing preliminary statement.

1.219. Statements sealed before filing.

1.221. Defective statements.

1.222. Correction of statement on motion.

1.223. Effect of statement.

1.224. Reliance on prior application.

1.225. Failure of junior party to file statement or to overcome filing date of senior party.

1.226. Notice and access to applications. 1.227. Access to preliminary statements.

INTERFERENCE: MOTION PERIOD, DISSOLUTION, REFORMATION

Sec.

1.231. Motion period.

1.232. Motions to dissolve. 1.233. Motions to amend.

1.234. Motion to include another application. 1.235. Motions relating to burden of proof. 1.236. Hearing and determination of motions. 1.237. Dissolution on motion of examiner. 1.238. Addition of new party by examiner.

INTERFERENCES: MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS

1.241. Copies of part of application.

1.242. Prosecution by assignee.

1.243. Motions before the Examiners of Interferences.

1.244. Motions; miscellaneous provisions.

1.245. Extensions of time.

1.246. Stay of proceedings.

1.247. Service of papers.

1.248. Service of papers; manner of service.

INTERFERENCES: TRIAL

1.251. Assignment of times for taking testimony. 1.252. Failure of junior party to take testimony.

1.253. Copies of the testimony.

1.254. Briefs at final hearing.

1.255. Request for findings of fact and conclusions of law. 1.256. Final hearing.

1.257. Burden of proof.

1.258. Matters considered in determining priority.

1.259. Recommendation by Board of Patent Interferences.

INTERFERENCES: TERMINATION

1.261. Termination of interference.

1.262. Disclaimer, concession, abandonment.

1.263. Statutory disclaimer by patentee.

1.264. Reissue filed by patentee.

1.265. Status of claims of defeated applicant after inter

ference.

1.266. Action after interference.

1.267. Second interference.

TESTIMONY IN INTERFERENCES AND OTHER

CONTESTED CASES

1.271. Evidence must comply with rules.

1.272. Manner of taking testimony of witnesses.

1.273. Notice of examination of witnesses.

1.274. Persons before whom depositions may be taken.

1.275. Examination of witnesses.

1.276. Certification and filing by officer.

1.277. Form of deposition.

1.278. Depositions must be filled.

1.279. Inspection of testimony.

1.281. Additional time for taking testimony.

1.282. Official records and printed publications.

1.283. Testimony taken in another interference or action. 1.284. Testimony taken in foreign countries.

1.285. Effect of errors and irregularities in depositions. 1.286. Objections to admissibility.

PROTESTS AND PUBLIC USE PROCEEDINGS 1.291. Protests to the grant of a patent. 1.292. Public use proceedings.

REVIEW OF PATENT OFFICE DECISIONS BY COURT 1.301. Appeal to U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals. 1.302. Notice and reasons of appeal.

1.303. Civil action under 35 U.S.C. 145, 146.

1.304. Time for appeal or civil action.

ALLOWANCE AND ISSUE OF PATENT

1.311. Notice of allowance.

1.312. Amendments after allowance.

1.313. Withdrawal from issue.

1.314. Issuance of patent.

1.315. Delivery of patent.

1.316. Forfeited application.

1.317. Delayed payment of final fee.

DISCLAIMER

1.321. Statutory disclaimer in patent.

CORRECTION OF ERRORS IN PATENT 1.322. Certificate of correction of Office mistake. 1.323. Certificate of correction of applicant's mistake.

Sec.

1.324. Correction of error in joining inventor. 1.325. Other mistakes not corrected.

ASSIGNMENTS AND RECORDING

1.331. Recording of assignments.

1.332. Receipt and recording. 1.333. Conditional assignments. 1.334. Issue of patent to assignee.

RECOGNITION OF ATTORNEYS AND AGENTS 1.341. Registration of attorneys and agents. 1.342. Limited recognition.

1.343. Persons not registered or recognized. 1.344. Professional conduct.

1.345. Advertising.

1.346. Signature and certificate of attorney. 1.347. Removing names from registers. 1.348. Suspension or disbarment proceedings.

AMENDMENT OF RULES

1.351. Amendments to rules will be published.
1.352. Publication of notice of proposed amendments.

AUTHORITY: §§ 1.1 to 1.352 issued under 35 U.S.C. 6. Statutory provisions interpreted or applied and additional authority are cited to text.

NOTE: In Patent Office publications and usage the part number is omitted from the numbers of §§ 1.1 to 1.352 and the numbers to the right of the decimal point correspond with the respective rule numbers.

GENERAL INFORMATION AND CORRESPONDENCE

§ 1.1. All communications to be addressed to Commissioner of Patents.

All letters and other communications intended for the Patent Office must be addressed to "Commissioner of Patents," Washington 25, D.C. When appropriate, a letter may be marked for the attention of a particular officer or individual.

NOTE: 1.1 to 1.26 are applicable to trademark cases as well as to patent cases except for provisions specifically directed to patents.

§ 1.2. 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.

§ 1.3. 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.

§ 1.4. 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 par

ticularly the rules relating to the filing and prosecution of applications or other proceedings (§§ 1.31 to 1.352 and §§ 2.11 to 2.189).

(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.

§ 1.5. Identification of application, patent or regis

tration.

(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 § 1.55).

(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.

§ 1.6. 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 Fourteenth 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.

§ 1.7. Times for taking action; expiration on Saturday, Sunday or holiday.

Whenever periods of time are specified in this part in days, calendar days are intended. When the day, or the last day, fixed by statute or by or under this part for taking any action or paying any fee in the Patent Office 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. See § 1.304 for time for appeal or for commencing civil action.

RECORDS AND FILES OF THE PATENT OFFICE

§1.11. 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 § 2.27 for trademark files.

§ 1.12. 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.

§ 1.13. 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. (35 U.S.C. 10) § 1.14. Patent applications preserved in secrecy.

(a) Pending patent 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 this part.

(b) Abandoned applications are likewise not open to public inspection, except that if an application referred to in a United States patent is abandoned and is available, it may be inspected or copies obtained by any person on written request, without notice to the applicant. Abandoned applications may be destroyed after twenty years from their filing date, except those to which particular attention has been called and which have been marked for preservation. Abandoned applications will not be returned.

(c) Applications for patents which disclose, or which appear to disclose, or which purport to disclose, inventions or discoveries relating to atomic energy are reported to the Atomic Energy Commission and the Commission will be given access to such applications, but such reporting does not constitute a determination that the subject matter of each application so reported is in fact useful or an invention or discovery or that such application in fact discloses subject matter in categories specified by secs. 151 (c) and 151 (d) of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, 68 Stat. 919; 42 U.S.C. 2181.

(d) Selected decisions of the Board of Appeals, or of the Commissioner, in abandoned applications not otherwise open to public inspection (paragraph (b) of this section) may be published or made available for publication at the Commissioner's discretion, unless the applicant timely presents sufficient reasons for not doing so. The applicant will

be notified, through the attorney of record in the application file, when it is proposed to release such a decision and a time not less than thirty days set for presenting any such reasons. The fact that the subject matter of the application has not been made public in any manner, or that the same subject matter is being prosecuted in a pending application, will be considered sufficient reason for not releasing the decision if the applicant so requests unless the text of the decision contains no description of such subject matter. Other reasons presented will be duly considered.

See § 2.27 for trademark applications.