Re: Board of Appeals
edlynsimmons@mmd.com
Tue, 17 Sep 1996 11:00:03 -0400 (EDT)
The Board of Appeals publication policy of each
patent authority depends upon the laws in effect.
The EPO allows access to the prosecution files
of published applications, so Board of Appeals
decisions are public. The US keeps the files of
applications secret until after grant, so Board of
Patent Appeals and Interferences decisions are
also secret. Except in the fairly rare situations
where the Board and the applicant agree to publication
of the decision, they're never published, but can
be read in the patent file after issue. You'd have
to know that you're interested in the prosecution
history of that particular patent and order the file