November 07, 2006
On Friday, the USPTO announced via the Federal Register that it will eliminate the Disclosure Document Program effective February 1, 2007. This program, implemented in 1969, allowed “an inventor to file a document with the Office which includes a written description and drawings of his or her invention in sufficient detail to enable a person of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention to establish a date of conception of an invention in the United States under 35 U.S.C.104 prior to the application filing date.” According to the Federal Register, provisional applications are available and have been since June of 1995, noting that provisional applications are “more useful to an inventor” as they “establish a constructive reduction to practice date with respect to an invention claimed in a nonprovisional application.” To memorialize this change, 37 CFR § 1.21(c) will be removed and reserved for future use.
Federal Register Excerpt: LINK
37 CFR § 1.21: LINK
MPEP § 1706 (“Disclosure Documents”): LINK
Federal Register Excerpt: LINK
37 CFR § 1.21: LINK
MPEP § 1706 (“Disclosure Documents”): LINK
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