Innovation & intellectual property · 05/04/2000

Changes To Implement Eighteen-Month Publication of Patent Applications

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is proposing changes to the rules of practice in patent cases to implement certain provisions of the "American Inventors Protection Act of 1999." These provisions of the "American Inventors Protection Act of 1999" provide, with certain exceptions, for the publication of pending patent applications (other than for a design patent) at eighteen months from the earliest claimed priority date.