Patent and Trademark Office February 10, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office or USPTO) proposes a new rule to implement the provision of the Leahy- Smith America Invents Act that requires the Office to issue regulations for determining whether a patent is for a technological invention in a transitional post-grant review proceeding for covered business method patents. The provision of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act will take effect on September 16, 2012, one year after the date of enactment. The provision and any regulations issued under the provision will be repealed on September 16, 2020, with respect to any new petitions under the transitional program.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office or USPTO) proposes new rules to implement the provisions of the Leahy- Smith America Invents Act that create a new inter partes review proceeding to be conducted before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (Board). These provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act will take effect on September 16, 2012, one year after the date of enactment, and apply to any patent issued before, on, or after the effective date.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office or USPTO) proposes new rules to implement the provisions of the Leahy- Smith America Invents Act that create a new post-grant review proceeding to be conducted before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (Board). These provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act will take effect on September 16, 2012, one year after the date of enactment, and generally apply to patents issuing from applications subject to first-inventor-to-file provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act.