1300

OCR transcription for search; preserved printed pages are authoritative

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# Chapter 1300 Allowance and Issue

1301
Substantially Allowable Case, Special

1302
Final Review and Preparation for Issue

1302.01
General Review of Disclosure

1302.01 (a)
Fee Exempt Application

1802.02
Requirement for a Rewritten Specification

1302.03
Status Letter of Allowability, POL-255

1302.04
Examiner's Amendments and Changes

1302.04 (a)
Title of Invention

1302.04 (b)

Cancelation of Non-Statutory Claim

1302.04 (c)
Cancellation of Claims to Non-Elected
Invention

1302.04(d)
Cancellation of Claims Lost In Interfer-
ence

1302.04 (e)
Cancellation of Rejected Claims Follow-
ing Appeal

1302.04 (f)
Data of Copending Application Referred
to-Brought up to Date

1302.04 (g)
Identification of Claims

1502.05
Correction of Drawing

1302.06
Prior Foreign Application

1302.07
Use of Retention Label to Preserve Aban-
doned Companion Applications

1302.08
Interference Search

1302.09
Notations on File Wrapper

1302.10
Notations on Drawings and on Classification
(Issue) Slip

1302.11
Reference to Assignment Branch

1302.12
Listing of References

1302.13
Signing

1303
Notice of Allowance

1303.01
Amendment Received after Allowance

1303.02
Undelivered

1303.03
Not Withheld Due to Death of Inventor

1304
Withholding From Issue of "Secrecy Order"

Cases

1304.01
Amendments After D-10 Notice

1305
Jurisdiction

1306

Public Law 690 Cases

1307
Change in Classification of Cases Which are in
Issue

1308
Withdrawal From Issue

1308.01
Rejection After Allowance

1308.02
For Interference Purposes

1309
Issue of Patent

1300.01
"Printer Waiting" Cases

1309.02
Protest Against Issue

## 1301 Substantially Allowable Case, Special

When an application is in condition for al-
lowance, except as to matters of form, the case

will be considered special and prompt action
taken to require correction of formal matters.
See 710.02(6) paragraph (a).

1302
Final Review and Preparation
for Issue

## 1302.01 General Review

When an application is apparently ready for
allowance, it should be reviewed by the Ex-
aminer to make certain that the whole case
meets all formal requirements and particularly
that the brief summary of the invention and
the descriptive matter are confined to the in-
vention to which the allowed claims are di-
rected and that the language of the claims
finds clear support or antecedent basis in the
specification. Neglect to give due attention to
these matters may lead to confusion as to the
scope of the patent.

Frequently the invention as originally de-
scribed and claimed was of much greater scope
than that defined in the claims as allowed.
Some or much of the subject matter disclosed
may be entirely outside the bounds of the
claims accepted by the applicant. In such case
the Examiner should require the applicant to
modify his brief summary of the invention
and restrict his descriptive matter so as to be
in harmony with the claims. However valu-
able for reference purposes the Examiner may
consider the matter which is extraneous to the
claimed invention, patents should be confined
in their disclosures to the respective inventions
patented. (Rule 71.) Of course enough back-
ground should be included to make the inven-
tion clearly understandable. See 608.01(d)
and 608.01(e).

There should be clear support or antecedent
basis in the specification for the terminology
used in the claims. Usually the original claims
follow the nomenclature of the specification;
but sometimes in amending the claims or in
adding new claims, applicant employs terms
that do not appear in the specification. This
may result in uncertainty as to the interpreta-
tion to be given such terms. See 608.01(o).

Where a copending application is referred to
in the specification, the Examiner should as-
certain whether it has matured into a patent
or become abandoned and that fact or the pat-
ent number added to the specification.

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## 1302.01(a)

The claims should be renumbered as required
by Rule 126, and particular attention should
be given to claims dependent on previous
claims to see that the numbering is consistent.
See 608.01 (j) and 608.01(n)

The abstract should be checked for an ade-
quate and clear statement of the disclosure.

The title should also be checked. It should
be as short and specific as possible. If a satis-
factory title is not supplied by the applicant,
the Examiner may change the title on or after
allowance., See 606 and 606.01.

All pencil notes made by the Examiners
must be erased when the case is passed to issue.

## 1302.01(a) Fee Exempt Application

See 607.01 for checking specification to
assure presence of proper stipulation by
applicant.

## 1302.02 Requirement for Rewritten Specification

Whenever interlineations or cancellations
have been made in the specification or amend-
ments which would lead to confusion and mis-
take, the Examiners should require the entire
portion of specification affected to be rewritten
before passing the case to issue. See Rule 125
in 608.01 (q).

## 1302.03 Status Letter of Allowability, POL-255

This letter is used whenever an application
under final rejection has been placed in condi-
tion for allowance as a result of a communica-
tion from or an interview with applicant.

The date of the communication or interview
which resulted in the allowance and the name
of the person with whom the interview, if any,
was held should be included in the letter.

Immediately after determining that a POL
255 letter is necessary, the letter should be ef-
fected before preparing the application for
allowance. See 714.13.

## 1302.04 Examiner's Amendments and Changes

Except by formal amendment duly signed or
as hereinafter provided, no corrections, era-
sures, or interlineations may be made in the
body of written portions of the specification
or any other paper filed in the application for
patent. (See Rule 121.)

Correction of the following obvious errors
and omissions only may be made with pen by

the Examiner of the case who will then initial
the sheet margin and assume full responsibility
for the change. When correcting originally
filed papers, clean red ink must be used (not
blue or black ink).

1\. Misspelled words.

2\. Disagreement of a noun with its verb.

3\. Inconsistent "case" of a pronoun.

4\. Disagreement between a reference charac-
ter as used in the description and on the draw-
ing. The character may be corrected in the
description but only when the Examiner is
certain of the propriety of the change.

5\. Entry of "now Patent No. ____ " to iden-
tify a patent which has been granted on a
U.S. application referred to by Serial No. in
the specification.

6\. Other obvious minor grammatical errors
such as misplaced or omitted commas, improper
parentheses, quotation marks, etc.

7\. Obvious informalities in the application,
other than the ones noted above, or of purely
grammatical nature.

The fact that applicant is entitled under 35
U.S.C. 120 to an earlier U.S. effective filing
date is sometimes overlooked. To minimize
this possibility, the statement that, "This is a
division (continuation, continuation-in-part)
of Application Serial No. ____ , filed
should appear as the first sentence after the ab-
stract except in the case of design applications
where it should appear as set forth in Sec.
1503.01. Any such statements appearing else-
where in the specification should be relocated.
(The clerk indicates the change for the printer
in the appropriate margin and applicant is
notified of the change by an Examiner's
Amendment.)

Other obvious informalities in the applica-
tion may be corrected by the Examiner, but
such corrections must be in the form of an
amendment, approved and signed by the Pri-
mary Examiner, placed in the file, and made
a part of the record. A copy of the amend-
ment is sent to the applicant. The changes
specified in the amendment are entered by the
clerk in the regular way.

The amendment or cancellation of claims by
Examiner's Amendment is permitted when
passing an application to issue where these
changes have been authorized by applicant (or
his representative) in a telephone or personal
interview. The Examiner's Amendment should
include a statement indicating that the changes
were authorized, the date and type (personal
or telephone) of interview, and with whom it
was had.

A change in the abstract may be made by
Examiner's Amendment.

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If the specification contains (1) statements
attempting to restrict the use of the abetrast, or
(2) restrictive statements or exprom limitations
relating to the scope of the invention claimed,
or appearing to restrict interpretation of the
claims, such statements shall be cancelled by
Examiner's Amendment.

Where a reference to the parent application
in an otherwise allowable Rule 147 divisional
case or streamlined continuation cans has in-
advertently been omitted by the applicant, the
Examiner should insert the required reference
by Examiner's Amendment (see 201.11).

No other changes may be made by any per-
son in any record of this office without the
written approval of the Commissioner of
Patents.

Referenoss cited as being of interest by ex-
eminens when passing an application to issue
will not be supplied to applicant. The refer-
ences will be cited as usual on form PO-892, &
copy of which will be attached to Examiner's
Amendment form POL-87.

Where an application is ready for issue ex-
cept for a slight defect in the drawing not
involving change in structure, the Examiner
will note in pencil on the drawing the addition
or alteration to be made. He will also prepare
an Examiner's Amendment indicating the
changes made and send the drawing to the
Draftsman for the required correction.

See also 608.02(w).

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1302.07

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Ini reviewing the application all errors
should be carefully noted. It is not a matter
of importance whether the language is the best
that could be chosen : it is, however, essential
that it be clear in meaning, and free from
errors in syntax. An Examiner's Amendment
is usually made at the time a case is being pre-
pared for issue by the Examiner. However,
such amendment may also be necessary after the
proof of the patent is read and the case is sent
up to the Examiner with & "printer waiting"
slip (Form PO-97). A copy of the amendment
is sent to applicant even if the application is
already in the printer's hands. Applicant can-
not "authorize" an Examiner's Amendment to
cancel certain claims in the event that others are
allowed.

### 1302.04(a) Title of Invention

Where the title of the invention is not spe-
cific to the invention as claimed, see 606.01.

### 1302.04(b) Cancellation of Non-Stat- utory Claim

When a case is otherwise in condition for
allowance the Examiner may cancel an obvi-
ously non-statutory claim such as one to "A
device substantially as shown and described."
Applicant should be notified of the cancella-
tion of the claim by an Examiner's Amend-
ment. See 706.03(h).

### 1302.04(c) Cancellation of Claims to Non-Elected Invention

See 821.01 and 821.02.

### 1302.04(d) Cancellation of Claim Lost in Interference

See 1109.02.

### 1302.04(e) Cancellation of Rejected Claims Following Appeal

See 1214.06, 1215.03, and 1215.04.

1302.04(f)
Data of Copending Ap-
plication Referred to
Should Be Brought Up to
Date

Where a patent application which is ready
for issue refers by serial number to a U.S.

application which has matured into a patent,
the Examiner is authorized to enter the patent
number without an Examiner's Amendment:
This entry should be in the following form:
"now Patent No. I .... " ( This entry is to be
initialed in the margin by the Examiner to fix
responsibility for the same. The entry and
the initials should be in red ink.

If the application referred to has become
abandoned, the entry "and now abandoned"
should be made by a formal Examiner's
Amendment.

## 1302.04(g) Identification of Claims

In entering an Examiner's Amendment in a
claim, the original number, as well as the num-
ber of the claim as it appears in the allowed
application, should be referred to.

## 1302.05 Correction of Drawing

Where a case otherwise ready for issue re-
quires correction of the drawing, the Exam-
iner, before sending the file to the Draftsman,
should attach thereto a slip indicating that the
case is ready for allowance. Slight defects
may be corrected on the Examiner's initiative
as set forth in 608.02(w) and an Examiner's
Amendment prepared as set forth in 1302.04.

In view of the relaxed requirements for cer-
tain fine details, the need to correct some slight
defects may be obviated. See 608.02-"Waiving
of Corrections."

## 1302.06 Prior Foreign Application See 201.14(c) and 202.03.

## 1302.07 Use of Retention Labels To Preserve Abandoned Com- panion Applications

Rule 14(b). Abandoned applications are likewise
not open to public inspection, except that if an appli-
cation referred to in a United States patent is aban-
doned and is available, it may be inspected or copies
obtained by any person on written request, without
notice to the applicant. Abandoned applications may
be destroyed after twenty years from their filing date,
except those to which particular attention has been
called and which have been marked for preservation.
Abandoned applications will not be returned.

Related applications referred to in patent
specifications are preserved from destruction
by a retention label (Form PO-150) which is
attached to the outside of the file wrapper. The

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Deoket Clerk of the Group prepares such a
label for use as indicated below on each appli-
cation (which has not become a patent) which
is referred to in the specification or oath of
the application ready for allowance (or in any
Office letter therein).

If the case referred to is
Still pending:

Fill in and paste label on the face of the
pending file wrapper in the space provided.
Make no change in specification of the allow-
able application.

Abandoned for failure to pay issue fee
(forfeited) :

If file has been forwarded fill in label and
send it to Abandoned Files for attachment
to the wrapper. If not forwarded treat the
same as pending case. If the period for filing
a petition for delayed payment has expired,
make Examiner's Amendment adding "now
abandoned" in the allowable application. If
period has not expired, make no change in
specification of the allowable application.

Abandoned :

If file has been forwarded fill in label and
send it to Abandoned Files for attachment to
the wrapper. If not forwarded treat the
same as pending case. Make Examiner's
Amendment, adding "now abandoned" in the
allowable application.

Already patented :

No label is required. Insert patent num-
ber in specification if not already present.
Examiner's Amendment not necessary if this
is only change.

In issue:

Fill in label. Make no change in the speci-
fication of the allowable application. Clip
the label to the Serial Register card of the
case in issue. If case in issue is abandoned or
is withdrawn from issue, it is returned to the
Group, where the Serial Register card is
pulled. The label is attached at this time.
If case in issue is patented, the label is de-
stroyed when the card is pulled.

Examiners are reminded that only one re-
tention label is necessary. Thus, if a retention
label is already present, it is sufficient to merely
add "et al." to the Serial Number cited thereon.

### 1302.08 Interference Search

Assuming that the case is found ready for
issue, the Examiner makes an "interference
search" and notes the date and class and sub-
classes searched in the file wrapper. To do this,
he inspects all the pending prints and drawings
(or all the digests if the invention is not suscep-

tible of illustration) in the relevant subclasses
of the class in which the application is classified,
and all other pertinent classes, whether in his
group or elsewhere, in order tob ascertain
whether any other applicant is claiming sub-
stantially the same subject matter os is being
allowed in the case in hand. : When any of the
drawings or digests shows such a condition to be
likely, he examines the corresponding file.
See 1101.01 (c).

If the search does not disclose any interfer-
ing application, the Examiner should prepare
the case for issue.

### 1302.09 Notations on File Wrapper

The Examiner preparing the application for
issue fills out in ink the appropriate spaces on
the face of the file wrapper.

In order to avoid misunderstanding on the
part of the Printing Office or the Issue and
Gazette Branch, Examiners are urged to be
especially careful to write the class and sub-
class on the outside of the file wrapper as
legibly as possible. Each numeral should be
carefully written to indicate its precise nature.
The decimal point should be shown clearly and
in its proper position.

Examiners will ordinarily designate but one
claim on each invention to be published in the
Oficial Gazette in connection with each orig-
inal or reissued patent. The broadest claim
should be selected. When a plurality of in-
ventions are claimed in an application, addi-
tional claims to a maximum of five may be
designated for publication.

Spaces are provided on the file wrapper for
identifying data of a prior abandoned applica-
tion for which the instant application is a Sub-
stitute, and for the parent application (s) and
prior foreign application (s) meeting the re-
quirements of the Statutes.

See 202.02 for notation as to parent or prior
application to be placed on file wrapper.

See 202.03 for notation as to foreign patent
application to be placed on file wrapper.

See 1302.13 for signatures.

The class and subclass and the name of the
Examiner which are written in pencil on the file
wrapper should correspond to the class and sub-
class in which the patent will issue and to the
name of the Examiner preparing the applica-
tion for issue.

## 1302.10 Notations on Drawings and on Classification (Issue) Slips

The class and subclass and the name of the
Assistant Examiner which have been written
in pencil in the upper lefthand corner of the
drawing should not be erased. See 717.03.

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On the margin of the first cheet of drawing,
the Examiner indicates in black ink in the spaces
provided by the Draftsmen's stamp the figure
which he selects for printing in the Official
Gazette and also the final official classification
of the case. Ordinarily a single figure is
selected for printing. This figure should be
consistent with the portion of the application to
be printed in the Official Gazette. The numer-
als should fill as much of the space provided as
feasible.

If the selected figure is not on the first sheet,
the Examiner should indicate it also on the
sheet where it does appear. If there is no
figure illustrative of or helpful in understand-
ing the claimed invention, no figure need be
selected. "None" may be written after "O.G.
Fig." If, through inadvertence, the stamped
legend for O.G. Fig. and class and subclass
appears within the margin of the drawing, the
Examiner, should make the notations outside
of the margins.

The only date entered on the front of the
drawings is the date of mailing of the Notice
of Allowance, which is done by the Issue and
Gazette Branch. Under current practice. the
Clerk of the Examining Division does NOT
enter any date when the case is "sent to issue".
See 903.07 and 903.07(b) for notation to be
applied to the Classification Slip (Form PO-
270).

## 1302.11 Reference to Assignment Branch

The practice of referring certain applications
to the Assignment Branch when passing them
to issue is no longer followed since title searches
are automatically made in all applications after
payment of the issue fee. See 303.

## 1302.12 Listing of References

All references which have been cited during
the prosecution, including those appearing in
Board of Appeals decisions, and those submitted
by applicant if they conform to the require-
ments set forth in 707.05(b) or 708.02, will be
printed in the patent.

At time of allowance, the Examiner may cite
pertinent art in an Examiner's Amendment.
Such citation of art is important in the case of
continuing applications where significant prior
art is often of record in the parent case. In the
rare instance where no art is cited in a continua-
tion application, all the references cited during
the prosecution of the parent application will
be listed at allowance for printing in the patent.
See 707.05 (a).

In the first action after termination of an in-
terference, the Examiner should make of record
in each application all references not already of
record which were pertinent to any motions to
dissolve and which were discussed in the deci-
sion on motion.

Foreign patents are listed by the actual name
of the country, as for example, "Great Brit-
ain" rather than "British" and "France" rather
than "F.ench".

German allowed applications (captioned "Pa-
tentanmeldung" or "Auslegeschrift"), Belgian
and Netherlands printed applications referred
to in 901.05 (b) should be listed under "OTHER
REFERENCES" rather than "FOREIGN
PATENTS". Care should be taken to include
the letter or letters immediately preceding the
number.

U.S. patents are listed in numerical order.
Foreign patents are listed alphabetically by
country and where there is more than one for-
eign patent from the same country these should
be listed in numeral order. See 707.05 for
citation of references.

In order to avoid possible errors in the listing
of references, the following procedure should
always be followed:

Whenever a reference has been incorrectly
cited in any official paper forming part of an
application file, and such citation has been cor-
rectly given in an ensuing Office action, the
Examiner is directed to correct the error, in
ink, in the paper in which the error appears,
and place his initials on the margin of such
paper, together with a notation of the paper
number of the action in which the citation has
been correctly given.

In any case, otherwise ready for issue, in
which the erroneous citation has not been for-
mally corrected in an official file paper, the
Examiner is directed to correct the citation on
an Examiner's Amendment form in addition to
correcting the official file paper in ink as indi-
cated above.

Where an applicant in an amendatory paper
or in a separate paper refers to a reference
which is subsequently relied on by the Exam-
iner, such reference shall be cited by the Exam-
iner in the usual manner.

Any new reference cited when the case is in
issue, under the practice of 1308.01, should be
added to the list.

## 1302.13 Signing

The Assistant Examiner who prepares the
application for issue signs his name in the
designated space.

After revision, the face of the file jacket is
signed in the space designated "Primary Ex-

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amine," by the Primary Examiner. "A Primary
Examiner who prepares an application for is-
sue himself aigne the file wrapper only in the
"Primary Examiner" space. A line should be
drawn through the "Assistant Examiner" box
to make it clear that the absence of a signature
in the box was not an oversight. "The signature
should not appear in any other space on the file
jacket.

The names of all examiners appearing in the
Office actions are printed in the issued patent.

## 1303 Notice of Allowance

The appropriate form of notice of allowance
is used and the mailing date appearing thereon
is stamped on the file wrapper by the Issue and
Gazette Branch.

## 1303.01 Amendment Received After Allowance

If the amendment is filed under Rule 312,
see 714.15 to 714.16(e). If the amendment
contains claims copied from a patent, see
1101.02(g).

1803.02 . Undeliverca justam sat no

In case a notice of allowance is returned, and
a new notice is sent (see 707.13), the date of
sending the notice must be changed in the file
to agree with the date of such remailing.

1303.03 Not Withheld Due to Death of
Inventor

The notice of allowance will not be withheld
due to death of the inventor if the executor or
administrator has not intervened. See 409.01 (f).

1304 Withholding From Issue of "Se-
crecy Order" Cases

"Secrecy Order" cases are not sent to issue
even when all of the claims have been allowed.
Instead of mailing an ordinary notice of allow-
ance a D-10 Notice is sent. See 107.02.

If the "Secrecy Order" in a case is with-
drawn after the D-10 notice is mailed, the case
should then be treated like an ordinary appli-
cation in condition for allowance.

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1304.01 Amendments After D -- 10 No

For amendments received after D-10 Notice,
see 107.02.

## 1305 Jurisdiction

Wend Vondin7 99tab# 10,0081

Jurisdiction of the application remains with
the Primary Examiner until the notice of allow-
ance is mailed by the Issue and Gazette Branch.
However, the Examiner may make Examiner's
amendments correcting obvious errors, as,
when brought to the attention of the Examiner
by the printer, and also may admit amend-
ments under Rule 312 which are confined to
matters of form in specification or claims, or
to the cancellation of a claim or claims. The
Examiner's action on other amendments under
Rule 312 consists of a recommendation to the
Commissioner.

To regain jurisdiction over the case, the Ex-
aminer must write a letter to the Commissioner
requesting it. See 1308 and 1808.02.

Once the patent has been granted, the Patent
Office can take no action concerning it except
as provided in 35 U.S.C. 135 and 35 U.S.C. 251
through 256. "See chapter 14.

## 1306 Public Law 690 Cases See 201.16.

### 1307 Change in Classification of Cases Which Are in Issue

See 903.07

#### 1308 Withdrawal From Issue

Rule $15. Withdrawal from issuc. After the notice
of allowance of an application is sent, the case will
not be withdrawn from issue except by approval of
the Commissioner, and if withdrawn for further action
on the part of the Office, a new notice of allowance will
be sent if the application is again allowed.

When the issue fee or that portion thereof specified
in the notice of allowance has been paid, and the
patent to be issued has received its date and number.
the application will not be withdrawn from issue on
account of any mistake or change of purpose of the
applicant, his attorney or his agent, nor for the purpose
of enabling the Inventor to procure a foreign patent,
nor for any other reasons except mistake on the part
of the Office. or because of fraud or illegality in the
application, or for interference. Express abandon-
ment of the application (rule 138) may not be recog-
nized by the Office unless it is actually received by
appropriate officials in time to act thereon before the
date of issue.

If the applicant wishes to have the case
withdrawn from/ imate, " he must / petition the
Commissioner. Withdrawaliis permitted only
for the reasons stated in the rule. For with+
drawal procedare by Examiner see 1808.08.

When the Examiner removes the drawing
from the drawing cabinet to prepare an appli-
cation for issue, the print of the drawing must
be taken from the application file and placed
in the drawing cabinet to take the place of the
original drawing. The print should remain in
the drawing cabinet during the period the appli-
cation is being revised for issue and until the
hard copy of the patent is received in the group
or the application becomes forfeited. The
docket clerk should, of course, add any neces-
sary notations on the print at the time the appli-
cation is forwarded to the Issue and Gazette
Branch.

This practice will insure that the drawing or
a print of the drawing is available at all times
in the drawing cabinet for interference searches.
This is of particular importance in groups
where there may be a backlog of applications
awaiting revision for issue. ; (Basis: Notice of
March 28, 1962.)

#### 1308.01 Rejection After Allowance

A claim noted as allowable shall thereafter
be rejected only with the approval of the Pri-
mary Examiner. Great care should be exer-
cised in authorizing such rejection. (Basis:
Order 3157.)

When a new reference is discovered, which
obviously is applicable to one or more of the
allowed claims in an application in issue, and
where a sufficient portion of the statutory pe-
riod for payment of final fee remains, the
Examiner is authorized to enter a letter in-
forming applicant of the proposal of request-
ing withdrawal from issue for the purpose of
rejecting the claim or claims as fully met by,
or obviously unpatentable over, the new ref-
erence. The letter should apply the reference
in detail and should also set a time limit
(within such statutory period), within which
applicant may respond by way of argument.
or amendment under Rule 312 to overcome the
reference and avoid the necessity for with-
drawal from issue. Such a letter, with the
reference and file, should be submitted to the
Group Supervisor before mailing. (Basis:
Notice of March 15, 1950.)

If insufficient time remains to carry out the
above, or if no response is received, or if a
response is filed and it fails to overcome the
reference, or if the above appears fruitless, a
letter is addressed to the appropriate Director,
requesting that the application be withdrawn

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from issue for the purpose of applying the new
reference. This letter should cite the refer-
ence, and, if need be, briefly state its applica-
tion. This letter, with the reference and file,
should be submitted to the Group Manager
before it is transmitted. Upon approval of this
request, the letter is taken to the Issue and
Gazette Branch and the application is stamped
"Withdrawn" over the allowance signature of
the Primary Examiner. It is then returned to
the group from which it came; the withdrawal
from the issue is entered on the register, and
the application is thus restored to its former
status as a pending application awaiting action
by the Examiner. The Examiner at once writes
a letter in the case stating that the application
has been withdrawn from issue, citing the new
reference, and rejecting the claims met thereby.

The letter is given a paper number and
placed in the file.

If the Examiner's proposed action is not ap-
proved, the letter requesting withdrawal from
issue should not be placed in the file.

#### 1308.02 For Interference Purposes

It may be necessary to withdraw a case from
issue for reasons connected with an interfer-
ence. For the procedure to be followed see
1101.01(o) and 1112.04.

## 1309 Issue of Patent

The files of allowed cases (not patented files)
are kept in the Issue and Gazette Branch, ar-
ranged in the serial number order. When the
final fee is paid within the time allowed by
law, the file is given a patent number and date.
The file then goes to the Assignment Branch
for examination as to assignments after which
it is sent to the Government Printing Office
for printing of the specification. A bond
paper copy of the drawing and specification is
ribboned and sealed in the Issue and Gazette
Branch and finally signed.

35 U.S.O. 153. How issued. Patents shall be issued
in the name of the United States of America, under the
seal of the Patent Office, and shall be signed by the
Commissioner or have his signature placed thereon
and attested by an officer of the Patent Office desig-
nated by the Commissioner, and shall be recorded in
the Patent Office.

In accordance with the Commissioner's No-
tice of July 2, 1952 (661 O.G. 13) various
officials including the head of the Issue and

Gazette Brauch have been designated as attest-
ing officer to attest to the name of the Commis-
sioner. The assistant head of the Issue and
Gazette Branch acts as attesting officer in the
absence or unavailability of the head of the
branch.

1309.01 "Printer Waiting" Cases

After printing of the specification the proof
is read by employees of the Government Print-
ing Office. Where apparent error is found, the
file with the proof is transmitted to the Exam-
iner, attention being called on an attached
"printer waiting" slip (Form PO-97) to the
supposed errors.

All "printer waiting" cases must receive im-
mediate attention and be returned to the Issue
and Gazette Branch as soon as possible (pref-
erably within three hours). (Basis: Notice of
December 6, 1920.)

If the Examiner concurs in the criticisms,
the errors should, if possible, be corrected in
clean red ink and initialed or be corrected by
Examiners' amendment. See 1302.04.

If the required correction cannot be cured
by Examiner's amendment, the application
may have to be withdrawn from issue. This
may sometimes be avoided if the attorney or
his representative is in Washington. In such
cases, he should be called in immediately, and
the error may perhaps be corrected by amend-
ment under Rule 312.

If the Examiner finds the specification cor-
rect as it stands, he endorses the slip to that
effect.

After correction or checking, the application
file and proof should be promptly returned to
the Issue and Gazette Branch.

1309.02 Protest Against Issue

Rule 291. Protests to the grant of a patent. The
patent statutes do not provide for opposition to the
grant of a patent on the part of the public. Protests
to the grant of a patent are ordinarily merely ac-
knowledged, and filed after being referred to the ex-
aminer having charge of the subject matter involved
for his information.

When a protest is filed against the issuance
of a patent the same shall, after consideration
by the Examiner, be forwarded to the Super-
visory Examiner and shall not be entered in
the file of the application to which it refers.
(Basis: Order 1805.)

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