[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 225 (Thursday, November 21, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Page 64280]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-25281]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Patent and Trademark Office

[Docket No. PTO-P-2019-0039]


Office Patent Trial Practice Guide, November 2019 Edition

AGENCY: United States Patent and Trademark Office, Commerce.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The United States Patent and Trademark Office (``Office'') is 
issuing a consolidated Office Patent Trial Practice Guide (``Practice 
Guide'') to incorporate prior updates to the original August 2012 
Practice Guide. The Office publishes the Practice Guide to provide 
practitioners with guidance on typical procedures and timeframes for 
taking action in post-grant trials implemented following the Leahy-
Smith America Invents Act (``AIA''), as well as to bring greater 
procedural consistency among panels of the Patent Trial and Appeal 
Board (``Board'').

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael Tierney and William Fink, Vice 
Chief Administrative Patent Judges, by telephone at (571) 272-9797.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Office is issuing a consolidated 
Practice Guide to incorporate prior updates to the original August 2012 
Practice Guide. The Office previously issued updates to the original 
2012 Practice Guide in August 2018 and July 2019. The consolidated 
Practice Guide includes no substantive changes from the prior updates 
or current Board practices. The topic of such revisions and updates 
include:
     Institution of trial after SAS Institute Inc. v. Iancu, 
138 S. Ct. 1348 (2018);
     use of sur-replies in lieu of observations;
     how parties may contact the Board to request an initial 
conference call;
     use of word counts;
     updates to the sample scheduling order for derivation 
proceedings; and
     updates to the default protective order.
    The November 2019 edition of the Practice Guide may be viewed or 
downloaded from the USPTO website at https://www.uspto.gov/TrialPracticeGuideConsolidated. The earlier Practice Guide update from 
July 2019 is available at https://www.uspto.gov/TrialPracticeGuide3 and 
the Practice Guide update from August 2018 is available at https://go.usa.gov/xU7GP. The full version of the original August 2012 Practice 
Guide continues to be available for reference on the USPTO website at 
https://go.usa.gov/xU7GK.
    Comments regarding the Practice Guide can be sent to 
[email protected].

    Dated: November 14, 2019.
Andrei Iancu,
Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of 
the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
[FR Doc. 2019-25281 Filed 11-20-19; 8:45 am]
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