How is a Patent Application abandoned?
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How is a Patent Application abandoned? Video Transcript
In this section, I am going to talk about when a case goes abandoned and what that means. A case goes abandoned when an applicant fails to respond to a pending issue of the Patent Office which might be an office action or restriction, a notice that they have given, that has a duration of time, that we have to, as the applicant, respond to to that notice. If that time passes, the case goes abandoned. It could be an office action in which case is a three months shortened statutory period for responding to the office action. You can extend it up to six months, but you could pay the extension fees at the time of filing the response. Six months total from the mailing date of the office action. You can extend it three more additional months from shortened statutory period. At any time you fail to respond, the case goes abandoned. Sometimes you can revive the case by paying the fees at the time of filing if it is within the time prescribed by the USPTO. If it is beyond that time, you have to go through a petition process where you can revive a case. The main thing is when the patent application is abandoned, that means the patent application is dead and anybody can go out and practice that invention absent any other intervening patents that might exist. Therefore, you have not secured your monopoly right yet. When a patent issues then it is a monopoly right. Before it issues, if one fails to respond in a timely fashion, the case can become abandoned. That is what this notice means. They usually send out a notice of abandonment. That notice of abandonment indicates that the case is now abandoned and the application process is terminated. There is no more further work the Patent Office will do on the case once a case goes abandoned. There are two ways to revive it. If it is within the statutory period where you can pay extension fees, then you can do it that way. Otherwise, if it is abandoned completely beyond the statutory period, you may be able to file a petition to revive because of unintentional abandonment or unavoidable abandonment.