McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP patent agents Joshua Bosman, Ph.D. and Gregory Huffman authored an article entitled, “A Look At The New Micro Entity Status At USPTO” that appears in the June 27, 2013 online edition of IP Law360.com. As part of new rules introduced by the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, a new section that defines a “micro entity” was added to Title 35 of the United States Code. As a subset of small entity status, micro entity status grants an applicant a 75 percent reduction of fees associated with filing, searching, examining, issuing, appealing and maintaining patent applications and patents. The new section sets forth procedures pertaining to claiming micro entity status, paying fees as a micro entity, notifying the United States Patent and Trademark Office of loss of micro entity status, and correcting erroneously paid fees. An applicant has two options for qualifying as a micro entity, which are provided in 35 U.S.C. §§ 123(a) and 123(d) (and implemented in 37 C.F.R. § 1.29).
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Note: this article originally appeared in the MBHB Spring 2013 edition of snippets publication.