If you haven’t noticed, many of my posts lately have revolved around the questions that I get from various clients. This one was a tough one. Not necessarily from the perspective of not knowing what to do, but having to hear the horror story from this client. Unfortunately, it is a horror story that I have heard numerous times. I received a call recently from someone that was going the patent process alone. At least he was until he received a “Notice of Abandonment” from the Patent Office. You may recall that in my last article, I noted that there was a way to revive a patent that was abandoned for failure to pay a maintenance fee. This post lets you know that there is a way to revive a patent application that was abandoned because of failure to respond to an Office Action.
First and foremost, the patent process is not a simple one. There are several nuances, and the process itself is very unforgiving. There really is not much room for error. For example, the deadlines are real deadlines. These are not suggestions. It is not ok to submit something one day late. That’s not going to cut it in the patent prosecution system. The one great thing about the patent system, however, is that you always have plenty of time to respond to any issue that may arise during the patent process. Also, there are deadlines, then there are extensions to the deadlines that can be purchased. Please understand that these extensions are not cheap, and there are only generally about three (in some instances four) one-month extensions that can be purchased. Each one is more expensive than the last.
Upon filing the petition to revive, along with the appropriate fee, the application will generally be revived by the PTO. For a petition to revive an application that was unavoidably abandoned, you will need to provide some kind of story as to why the application was unavoidably abandoned. For a petition to revive an application that was unintentionally abandoned, all you pretty much need to say is “sorry” and the petition will be granted. Personally, I have only seen one petition to revive for an unavoidable abandonment that was granted. In that case, it turns out that the Applicant never received the Office Action because it got stuck somewhere in patent office mail room limbo. How could you possibly have avoided that? I have filed plenty of petitions to revive based on unintentional abandonment (these are for clients that have come to me with an abandoned application and a check), and these are generally very smooth and simple to get granted.
For more information, please feel free to contact me through our website. You can also follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook for even more information.
Many small businesses are required to report their beneficial ownership information (BOI) to the Financial…
A new addition to the family is an incredible blessing. With this precious gift comes…
Trademark protection is designed to secure a business asset that is unique to your business…
So … you are purchasing a home or other piece of residential real estate in…
Litigation can be a lengthy, costly, and emotionally draining process. As an attorney who practices…
Imagine this scenario: there is a certain corporation with 400 business units. Each business unit…