USPTO, general links
USPTO Home
Patent links are available from the navigation tabs.
USPTO Patents home page
"The Patent Office of the USPTO examines applications" (using approximately 6800 examiners) "and grants patents on inventions when applicants are entitled to them; it publishes and disseminates patent information, records assignments of patents, maintains search files of U.S. and foreign patents..."
Basic Patent Guide
A 36 page summary entitled General Information Concerning Patents.
Offices within the USPTO
Organizational structure of the Patent Office.
USPTO manuals
Manual of Patent Examining Procedure
Patent Classification main page
"The U.S. Patent Classification (USPC) system provides for the storage and retrieval of every patent document that a patent examiner needs to review when examining patent applications."
Manual of U.S. Patent Classification, (MOC / USPC)
Search in patent classes and subclasses for both CPC and USPC systems. A class number (symbol) is needed, which can be obtained using the Index. For U.S. classes, select "USPC", enter the class/subclass, and then select the content type. The manual lists the numbers and descriptive titles of the approximately 430 patent classes and 150,000 subclasses in the U.S. Patent Classification (USPC) System, as well as the plant and design classes.
It is important to note that the USPTO is migrating to using the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) scheme, developed jointly with the European Patent Office (EPO).
The manual can be searched but not browsed in Westlaw.
Index to the Manual of Classification, 3 view modes:
- Using class numbers and titles (alpha and #)
Other patents links
Main resources page
Page lists policies, procedures, guides, tools and manuals.
Patent FullText (PatFT) databases
Patent Application filing Guide and process Diagram for a Utility patent.
Design patent Guide.
About the Patent Trial and Appeal Board
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board was formerly known as the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences. The America Invents Act changed the US patent system in a way that ends "patent interferences" as a viable legal action. Only pending interference cases are being litigated, and new actions brought under a derivation basis must be instituted within one year..
The Board's duties are:
"(1) on written appeal of an applicant, review adverse decisions of examiners upon applications for patents pursuant to section 134(a);
(2) review appeals of reexaminations pursuant to section 134(b);
(3) conduct derivation proceedings pursuant to section 135; and
(4) conduct inter partes reviews and post-grant reviews pursuant to chapters 31 and 32."
The judges of the Board render decisions that can be appealed in the same manner as other administrative rulings.
PTAB links
Some of the most salient resources of the PTAB's web pages are:
The PTAB home page.
The Resources page lists the Board rules for appeals, and trial rules. It also provides a Trial Practice Guide and links to related outside resources.
Trial information is provided in the Trials page, which covers proceedings of the Board, "...including ...post-grant review, the transitional post-grant review for covered business method patents, derivations, and interferences." Charts display a typical trial proceeding timeline and the differences between inter partes review, post grant reviews, and covered business methods under the AIA.
The Decisions page links to all public final decisions of the PTAB.
The remaining links from the home page include Appeals, Hearings, and Statistics.