American Inventor's Protection Act of 1999

The American Inventors Protection Act (AIPA) was enacted November 29, 1999, as Public Law 106-113 and amended by the Intellectual Property and High Technology Technical Amendments Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-273) enacted November 2, 2002. The material presented on this web site reflects this enacted law.


The contents of the AIPA web site are organized as follows:

  1. Laws, Consolidated Patent [PDF] contains the most recent revisions to the Laws.
  2. Rules, Consolidated Patent [PDF] contains the most recent revisions to the Rules.
  3. Legislation is found at Text of Public Law 107-273 (116 Stat. 1757-1922) IP Provisions; Extracted pages 143 through 165 [PDF] (signed into law 11/02/02; posted 6/2/03) and Text of section 1000(a)(9), Division B, of Public Law 106-113, pages 83-182 [PDF].
  4. Recent Notices (Federal Register & Official Gazette) include Notice of Erroneous Early Release of Patent Application Information on November 11, 2010 [PDF] and Notice of Erroneous Posting of Application Information on September 1, 2005 [PDF]. Recent patent-related notices include "Examination Guidelines for 35 U.S.C. § 102(e), as amended by the AIPA, and further amended by the Intellectual Property and High Technology Technical Amendments Act of 2002"; "Claiming the Benefit of a Prior-Filed Application under 35 U.S.C. §§ 119(e), 120, 121, and 365(c)"; "Reminder that Rescission of a Nonpublication Request is Not Itself a Notice of Foreign Filing"; and "Proposed Changes To Implement the 2002 Inter Partes Reexamination and Other Technical Amendments to the Patent Statute."
  5. Presentations: Slideset(s) & Chart(s) include training slides, charts and other resources provided to assist in understanding the changes to the laws and the rules in view of the AIPA and the High Technology Technical Amendments Act of 2002.
  6. USPTO Forms on USPTO.gov include many of the forms that have been modified due to the implementation of the AIPA and the PBG-Final Rule.
  7. Questions and Answers include relevant information about AIPA.
  8. Resources include the PBG and AIPA Training and Implementation Guide; Changes to Title 35 enacted 1/18/2000; Articles on AIPA; and Concept of Operations.

Under the AIPA, while the Department of Commerce provides policy direction, the USPTO has independent responsibility for its management and operations, including personnel decisions, procurements, and other management and administrative functions. While legally, the USPTO maintains a great deal of discretion over its budgetary and operational decision-making, the Department is an active partner. To assist the Department in its policy oversight role, the USPTO provides timely information on a regular basis, and actively participates in Departmental activities. The following list reflects understandings of the Office of the Secretary and the USPTO as to the implementation of Secretarial policy direction pursuant to 35 U.S.C.§1.

U.S. Department of Commerce Policy Oversight of the United States Patent and Trademark Office

 

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The Inventors Assistance Center is available to help you on patent matters. Send questions about USPTO programs and services to the USPTO Contact Center (UCC) . You can suggest USPTO Web pages or material you would like featured on this section by E-mail to the webmaster@uspto.gov . While we cannot promise to accommodate all requests, your suggestions will be considered and may lead to other improvements on the Web site.