In order to promote reliability and predictability of patent
rights, we are clarifying our practice for situations that will require
additional information about whether a delay in seeking the revival of an
abandoned application, a delayed maintenance fee payment, or a delayed priority
or benefit claim was unintentional. Specifically, we will require additional
information when:
a petition to
revive an abandoned application is filed more than two years after the date the
application became abandoned;
a petition to accept a delayed maintenance
fee payment is filed more than two years after the date the patent expired for
nonpayment; and
a petition to
accept a delayed priority or benefit claim is filed more than two years after
the date the priority or benefit claim was due.
The additional information is required to ensure that, in
situations where there has been such an extended delay in filing the petition,
we are provided with sufficient facts and circumstances to support a conclusion
that the entire delay was “unintentional.”
You can find additional information in the Federal Register.