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| Terms: |
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RCE Request for Continued Examination: A request
filed in an application in which prosecution is closed (e.g., the
application is under final rejection or a notice of allowance) that is
filed to reopen prosecution and continue examination of the application;
requires the filing of a submission and payment of a fee. |
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Record: An original copy of an international
application filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty maintained by the
International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization. |
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Reexamination Proceeding: At any time during the
enforceability of the patent, any person may request reexamination by
the Office of any claim of a patent on the basis of prior patents or
printed publications cited under 37 CFR 1.501. In order for the request
for reexamination to be granted, a substantial new question of
patentability must be present with regard to at least one patent claim.
The request must be in writing and must be accompanied by payment of a
reexamination request filing fee as set forth in 37 CFR 1.20(c). |
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Reconsideration: When advised of the abandonment of
his or her application, applicant may either ask for reconsideration of
such holding, if he or she disagrees with it on the basis that there is
no abandonment in fact; or petition for revival under 37 CFR 1.137. |
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Reduction To Practice:
Reduction to practice may be
an actual reduction or a constructive reduction to practice that occurs
when a patent application on the claimed invention is filed. The actual
reduction of practice occurs prior to filing the application when the
inventor is in a position to build a physical embodiment of an
invention. The filing of a patent application serves as conception and
constructive reduction to practice of the subject matter described in
the application. Thus the inventor need not provide evidence of either
conception or actual reduction to practice when relying on the content
of the patent application. |
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Reexamination: Any person may, at any time during the
period of enforceability of a patent, file a request for an ex parte
reexamination by the Office of any claim of the patent on the basis of
prior art patents or printed publications cited under § 1.501. The
request must be accompanied by the fee for requesting reexamination set
in § 1.20(c)(1). |
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Registered Patent
Agent: One who is not an attorney but is authorized to act for or in
place of the applicant (s) before the Office, that is, an individual who
is registered to practice before the Office. |
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| Reference: Prior art. |
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Reissue: An application for a patent to take the
place of an unexpired patent that is defective in one or more
particulars. |
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Rejoinder: The rejoining (returning to active
consideration) of claims previously withdrawn from consideration to due
to an election requirement. |
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Rejection: The examiner reads the application to make
a determination if the claims should be accepted or rejected. I n order
to make this decision the examiner should understand the claimed
invention and then make a prior art search for the claimed invention.
With the results of the prior art search, including any references
provided by the applicant, the patent application should be reviewed and
analyzed in conjunction with the state of the prior art to determine
whether the claims define a useful, novel, nonobvious, and enabled
invention that has been clearly described in the specification. The goal
of examination is to clearly articulate any rejection early in the
prosecution process so that the applicant has the opportunity to provide
evidence of patentability and otherwise reply completely at the earliest
opportunity. The examiner then reviews all the evidence, including
arguments and evidence responsive to any rejection, before issuing the
next Office action. Where the examiner determines that
information reasonably necessary for the examination should be required
from the applicant, such a requirement should generally be made either
prior to or with the first Office action on the merits. |
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Request (PCT): Form PCT/RO/101, filed with an
international application in a receiving Office, which includes an
indication of applicant(s) and a designation of one or more Contracting
States. |
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Restriction: If two or more independent and distinct inventions are
claimed in one application, the examiner may require the applicant to
elect (designate) a single invention to which the claims will be
restricted (limited to). This requirement is known as a requirement for
restriction (also known as a requirement for division). Such requirement
will normally be made before any action on the merits; however, it may
be made at any time before final action (final rejection). (See 37 CFR §
1.141 and § 1.142) If restriction is required, the subject matter of the
original patent claims will be held to be constructively elected unless
a disclaimer of all the patent claims is filed in the reissue
application, which disclaimer cannot be withdrawn by applicant. |
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Reverse Engineering: The art of extracting know-how
or knowledge from an article of manufacture or a composition of matter
to determine of how to make or use it. |
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