United States Patent and Trademark Office May 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Section 1(h) of the Act to correct and improve certain provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act and title 35, United States Code (AIA Technical Corrections Act) revised the patent law provisions pertaining to patent term adjustment. Section 1(h) of the AIA Technical Corrections Act revised the date from which the fourteen- month patent term adjustment period is measured, and clarified the date from which the three-year patent term adjustment period is measured, with respect to international applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty. Under section 1(h) of the AIA Technical Corrections Act, the fourteen-month patent term adjustment period and the three- year patent term adjustment period is measured from the same date: the date on which an application was filed under 35 U.S.C. 111(a) in an application under 35 U.S.C. 111; or the date of commencement of the national stage under 35 U.S.C. 371 in an international application. Section 1(h) of the AIA Technical Corrections Act also revised the provisions for notifying applicants of patent term adjustment determinations and revised the time period for requesting reconsideration and judicial review of the Office's patent term adjustment determinations and decisions. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) published an interim rule on April 1, 2013 (patent term adjustment interim rule), amending the rules of practice to implement the changes to the patent term adjustment provisions in section 1(h) of the AIA Technical Corrections Act. This final rule adopts as final the amendments to the rules of practice originally set forth in the patent term adjustment interim rule. The Office is further providing an optional procedure for requesting a recalculation of patent term adjustment, as an alternative to the petition and fee otherwise required to request reconsideration of a patent term adjustment determination, for patents issued between January 14, 2013 (the date of enactment of the AIA Technical Corrections Act) and May 20, 2014 (patents issued on or after this date will have patent term adjustment determinations consistent with the AIA Technical Corrections Act) that resulted directly from international applications. The Office is providing this optional procedure for requesting a recalculation of patent term adjustment because the Office has experienced a significant delay in modifying the computer program used to calculate patent term adjustment with respect to the changes resulting from the AIA Technical Corrections Act.