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Question:
What must an application filed under 37 CFR 1.53(d) be filed before the earliest of?
Answer:
An application filed under 37 CFR 1.53(d) must be filed before the earliest of:
- (A) payment of the issue fee on the prior application, unless a petition is granted in the prior application;
- (B) abandonment of the prior application; or
- (C) termination of proceedings on the prior application.
Chapter Details:
The answer to this question can be found in chapter 500 of the MPEP. This chapter covers Receipt and Handling of Mail and Papers.
The answer is from the 9th Edition, Revision 08.2017. Depending on future changes to the MPEP, the question and answer may or may not be applicable in later Editions or revisions.
Section Summary:
This question and answer comes from section 506 of the MPEP. The following is a brief summary of this section:
506 Completeness of Original Application
This section covers the completeness of the original application including both nonprovisional and provisional applications. A Notice of Incomplete Application will be mailed for incomplete nonprovisional applications. The filing date will not be granted until the nonprovisional application is deemed complete. In addition, no filing date will be granted for an incomplete provisional application.
Applications are deemed informal and therefore not granted a filing date for numerous reasons including if it is typed on both sides of the paper.
A discussion on filing dates for nonprovisional and provisional applications is also included in this section.