Changes to Application Examination and Provisional Application Practice

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is revising the rules of practice in patent cases to implement certain provisions of the ``American Inventors Protection Act of 1999.'' These provisions of the ``American Inventors Protection Act of 1999'' provide for continued examination of an application for a fee, extend the pendency of a provisional application if the date that is twelve months after the filing date of the provisional application falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or a Federal holiday within the District of Columbia, eliminate the copendency requirement for a nonprovisional application to claim the benefit of a provisional application, provide for the conversion of a provisional application to a nonprovisional application, and to provide a prior art exclusion for certain commonly assigned patents.