In cases of mismatched parts of Pre-Grant Publications, like the two Stu points out below, does anyone know if there is a statutory burden on the applicant to seek correction of the erroneously published applications? Certificates of Correction conceivably could correct a misassembled facepage, but I don't believe the Pre-Grant Publication statute provides for Certificates of Correction prior to grant. If portions of the spec & claims are electronically misassembled by the PTO as part of the publication process, it seems unreasonable for the applicants to file Reissue applications to correct substantial portions of the specs. Such a document would be invalid on its face, since the specification won't enable the claims. If such errors are created, not by the applicants, but by the PTO in its data processing, a new type of Amendment or a broader form of Certificate of Correction may be in order.
Roy Zimmermann
Patent Information Specialist
763-505-2527
roy.zimmermann@medtronic.com
-----Original Message-----
From: stuart.m.kaback@exxonmobil.com
[mailto:stuart.m.kaback@exxonmobil.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 11, 2002 9:46 AM
To: piug-l@derwent.co.uk
Subject: A new monstrosity
Friends,
Some months ago (November) I called to your attention a wildly mismatched
US Pregrant Publication, with a front page from Company A and body from
Company B. I have a new one, but this time the body parts are assembled
differently.
The publication is US2002/0037961-A1 of March 28, 2002. Its title and
specification belong together, and clearly come from some Japanese source,
one which I haven't attempted to identify. The rest of the front page
(including the abstract, inventorship, priority details) match the proposed
claims, and come from Dow Chemical.
Somebody's going to have to find a way to prevent this sort of thing from
happening. In the meantime, the November mismatch was still there on the
USPTO website last I checked (mid-March). Somebody's going to have to find
a way to correct such blunders should they happen. And withing a
reasonable frame of time.....not months and months and months after
notification of the error.
Stu Kaback
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