Innovation & intellectual property · 25/03/2003

Changes To Implement Electronic Maintenance of Official Patent Application Records

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) has established a 21st Century Strategic Plan to transform the Office into a quality-focused, highly productive, responsive organization supporting a market-driven intellectual property system. One priority of the 21st Century Strategic Plan is the beginning-to-end electronic processing of patent applications. The Office is proposing changes to the rules of practice in this notice to adapt to a patent electronic image management system. Specifically, the changes proposed in this notice facilitate electronic data capture and processing, streamline the patent application process, and simplify and clarify the pertinent provisions of the rules of practice.