It determines when and how it will act, and the applicant can only ask and wait.” This correctly means that once the applicant has filed, whether it is an application or a response to an examiner, the applicant has no opportunity to influence the speed with which the USPTO operates, and wisely recognizes that an applicant can’t possibly delay prosecution once the application or response is in the hands of the USPTO for action by the agency. Upon the failure of the applicant to prosecute the application within six months after any action therein, of which notice has been give or mailed to the applicant, or within such shorter time, not less than thirty days, as fixed by the Commissioner in such action, the application shall be regarded as abandoned by the parties thereto, unless it be shown to the satisfaction of the Commissioner that such delay was unavoidable. An application for patent for an invention disclosed in the manner provided by the first paragraph of section 112 of this title in an application previously filed in the United States by the same inventor shall have the same effect, as to such invention, as though filed on the date of the prior application, if filed before the patenting or abandonment of or termination of proceedings on the first application or on an application similarly entitled to the benefit of the filing date of the first application and if it contains or is amended to contain a specific reference to the earlier filed application.
Author: Gene Quinn
Published at: 2025-05-28 22:30:15
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