Patent and Trademark Office August 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is revising the patent term adjustment provisions of the rules of practice in patent cases to better reflect the period of appellate review. The patent term adjustment provisions of the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 (AIPA) provide for patent term adjustment if, inter alia, the issuance of the patent was delayed due to appellate review by the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (Board) or by a Federal court, and the patent was issued under a decision in the review reversing an adverse determination of patentability. The Office is specifically revising the rules of practice to indicate that the period of appellate review under the patent term adjustment provisions of the AIPA begins when jurisdiction over the application passes to the Board rather than the date on which a notice of appeal to the Board is filed.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (``USPTO'') issues a final rule to incorporate classification changes adopted by the Nice Agreement Concerning the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (``Nice Agreement''). These changes became effective January 1, 2012, and are listed in the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (10th ed., 2011), which is published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (``WIPO''). In addition, the USPTO is amending some punctuation and grammar to conform to what appears in the Nice Agreement.