500

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# Chapter 500 Receipt and Handling of Mail and Papers

601
Papers Received by Mail Branch

502
Depositing Papers

503
Serial Number and Filing Receipt

501
Register of Applications

505
"Office Date" Stamp of Receipt

508
Completeness of Original Application

506.01 Return of Incomplete Application

507
Drafting Branch

508
Distribution

508.01 Papers Sent to Wrong Group

508.02
Papers Received After Patenting or Abandon-
ment

## 501 Papers Received by Mail Branch

All communications are received by the In-
coming-Mail Section of the Correspondence
and Mail Branch, which opens and distributes
all official mail.

## 502 Depositing Papers

The application having been prepared and
executed, it can be sent to the Patent Office by
mail or express, or may be delivered by hand.

Amendments and other papers reach the Of-
fice by mail, or in Washington they may be
deposited in the Mail Branch or in a box
which is kept at the Patent Office for this
purpose.

The previous practice of hand delivery of
officially date-stamped papers has been discon-
tinued. A duplicate copy of such papers may
be hand delivered. See 104, 710.02(e) and
713.01.

Rule 6. Receipt of letters and papers. (a) Letters
and other papers received in the Patent Office are
stamped with the date of receipt. No papers are
received in the Patent Office on Saturdays, Sundays or
holidays within the District of Columbia.

(b) Mail placed in the Patent Office pouch up to
midnight on weekdays, excepting holidays, by the post
office at Washington, D.C., serving the Patent Office,
is considered as having been received in the Patent
Office on the day it was so placed in the pouch.

(c) In addition to being mailed or delivered by
hand during office hours, letters and other papers may
be deposited up to midnight in a box provided at the
guard's desk at the 14th and E Street entrance of the
Patent Office on weekdays except Saturdays and holt-

days, and all papers deposited therein are considered
as received in the Patent Office on the day of deposit.

## 503 Serial Number and Filing Receipt

It is most important that the Group number
be typed on amendments and other com-
munications relating to pending applications
in order to expedite the handling of mail. The
number of the Group should be placed on the
right-hand side, opposite the Serial Number or
name of applicant. In view of the vast amount
of mail, continued careful attention to these
details will do much toward avoiding delay in
handling of mail.

In the Application Branch each application
which meets the formal requirements as to
completeness is immediately given a serial
number and a filing date. Since the serial
numbers are limited to six digits, a new series
is started from time to time. The current
series was started in 1960. It is therefore
important, when referring to application files,
to identify them by their filing dates as well
as by serial numbers.

The Application Branch mails a receipt to
the attorney or agent, if any, otherwise to the
applicant, for each application filed, giving the
serial number, filing date, and group to which
assigned. The filing receipt may contain nota-
tions of apparent omissions. See 506.

In the Application Branch the application
papers, with the exception of the drawing, are
placed in a jacket and the data listed in 717.02
are placed thereon.

## 504 Register of Applications

The Application Branch assigns the applica-
tion to the examining group to which it ap-
pears to belong. A list of all applications
arranged by serial numbers as well as an
alphabetically arranged card index of the ap-
plicants is kept by the Application Branch
and the identification of the group to which
each application is sent is made part of this
record.

505 "Office Date" Stamp of Receipt

In whatever manner an application or any
part thereof, or an amendment, letter, or other

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paper is transmitted, the date of ita receipt is
stamped thereon by the Correspondence and
Mail Branch. A print or sketch so stamped
which is later mounted on Bristol board by the
Application Branch has the same data stamped
on the back of the Bristol board. The stamp
is referred to as the "Office Dato" stamp and,
if the application is complete (See Rufe 55),
establishes the "filing date."

## 506 Completeness of Original Appli- cation

If the application papers are too informal
to warrant their being forwarded to the proper
examining group, they are not given a serial
number, but the case is held in the Application
Branch as an incomplete application and the
attorney or agent, if any, otherwise the appli-
cant, is informed of the shortcomings of the
papers.

Such informality may consist of the omis-
sion of any one of the component parts of an
application; see Rule 51. Whether or not a
drawing is necessary is decided in accordance
with the principles outlined in. 608.02.

Beginning on February 1, 1962, however, the
Application Branch accords a filing date, as of
the date of receipt in the Office, to application
papers which include all of the necessary com-
ponents of a complete application, even though
there appear to have been omitted therefrom
either :

(a) one or more figures of the drawing

(b) one or more pages of the specification

(c) one or more claims.

The apparent omission is noted on the filing
receipt mailed to applicant so that he may take
any action in the matter which he deems ap-
propriate or necessary.

An application too informal to be admitted
for examination may receive as its filing date,
the date it was originally presented only under
the conditions set forth in Rule 183, and only
when a satisfactory showing is made that a
proper application could not be submitted
originally and that applicant will suffer ir-
reparable damage if the filing date sought is
not accorded.

## 506.01 Return of Incomplete Appli- cation

If a request is made, the parts of an incom-
plete application are returned by the Applica-
tion Branch. Otherwise, the papers (and fee)
are retained for at least six months and then
returned. They may be used by applicant, as
part of a complete application if the missing
parts are later supplied. See Rule 53.

## 507 Drafting Branch

The drawing is sent to the Drafting Branch
to be inspected for formal compliance with the
rules. If the drawing ja satisfactory, or if it
contains defects which are not be serious as
to warrant holding the application to be in-
complete, the Draftsman enters the appropri-
ate notation (608.02(a) and 608.02(b)).

If the drawings are so informal that they
may not serve for examination purposes or for
the purpose of receiving a filing date, the
Draftsman writes in lead pencil on the margin
of the drawing "Inf." (Informal). The draw-
ings are then returned to the Application
Branch, which writes the applicant that the
application is incomplete and will not be given
a date and serial number until a proper draw-
ing is filed.

## 508 Distribution

The Application Branch has permanent
prints made of the drawings of all complete
applications and secures the prints in the file
wrappers. The drawings and files are then
assembled and forwarded to the proper exam-
ining group.

When a new or substitute drawing is re-
ceived, a print is made and forwarded to the
Group to be placed in the file as an official
paper.

As to the procedure to be followed when a
model is filed, see 608.03 and 608.03 (a).

### 508.01 Papers Sent to Wrong Group

Drawings, amendments and other papers
that are delivered to Groups to which they do
not belong should be promptly returned to the
Application Branch for re-routing. Papers
may be forwarded to the correct destination,
if known.

A terminal disclaimer should not be routed
directly to an Examining Group. If such a
paper (without the file) is received, it should
be promptly forwarded without the file to the
Issue and Gazette Branch.

## 508.02 Papers Received After Patent- ing or Abandonment

After an application is patented or aban-
doned, any incoming communication which is
not to become part of the record is sent to
the Correspondence and Mail Branch for han-
dling with the status of the application indi-
cated thereon.

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