Comments - Lillis

From: LILLISM@COOLEY.COM
Sent: Tuesday, May 02, 2000 12:39 PM
To: RCE
Subject: Comments on the Changes to Rules 312 and 313



With the proposed changes to 37 CFR §§ 1.312 and 1.313, amendments to the
application after the payment of the issue fee will not be permitted unless
applicant submits a petition to withdraw the application from issue,
provides an unequivocal statement the one or more claims are unpatentable
and an explanation as to how the amendment is necessary to render the claims
unpatentable.  How, then, can minor amendments, which may be necesitated by
corrections required in the drawings after payment of the issue fee, be
entered ?  37 CFR 1.85(c) permits applicant to submit corrected drawings
with the payment of the issue fee, or for a period of three months
thereafter with the filing of a petition for extension of time and payment
of the required fee.  If the drawings submitted with the issue fee, or
within the three months thereafter, require further correction, as
occasionally happens, and if those required corrections necessitate minor
changes to the specification (for example, a change of "Figure 1" to "Figure
1A" and "Figure 1B" will require a corresponding change to the Description
of the Drawings), it would appear that the proposed change to sections 312
and 313 would make such an amendment impossible if the further requirement
for drawing changes is made after the payment of the issue fee.

Marcella Lillis
Reg No. 36,583