United States Patent and Trademark Office OG Notices: 29 January 2002

                   Patent Term Adjustment Determinations in
                     Notices of Allowance Mailed Between
                    November 13, 2001 and December 23, 2001


   The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has
discovered a programming error that has resulted in Notices of
Allowance mailed on or after November 13, 2001 and before December 23,
2001 being printed with a zero (0) in the patent term adjustment field,
regardless of whether the application is entitled to patent term
adjustment or not. The USPTO's records for patent applications
contained in the Patent Application Locating and Monitoring (PALM)
system, however, now contain the correct patent term adjustment
information (i.e., positive adjustments due to USPTO delay,
reductions due to applicant delays, and net patent term adjustment) for
the affected applications. Therefore, the correct patent term
adjustment determination will be printed on the Issue Notification and
on the patent.

   Any applicant who received a Notice of Allowance mailed on or
after November 13, 2001 and before December 23, 2001 and who considers
the patent term adjustment amount printed on the Notice of Allowance to
be in error is advised to check the USPTO's PALM records for the
application prior to preparing and submitting a request for
reconsideration under 37 CFR 1.705 of the patent term adjustment
indicated on the Notice of Allowance. This is because such a request
for reconsideration will not be necessary to have the correct patent
term adjustment printed on the Issue Notification and on the patent if
the USPTO's PALM records for the application contain the correct patent
term adjustment.

   Applicants can check the patent term adjustment information
contained in the USPTO's records via the USPTO's Patent Application
Information and Retrieval (PAIR) system. The PAIR system has two sides:
(1) a public side that provides information to any member of the public
concerning patents and published applications (i.e.,
applications not maintained in confidence under 35 U.S.C.
122(a)), which can be accessed via the USPTO's Internet Web site at
http://pair.uspto.gov; and (2) a private side that provides information
only to the applicant or the applicant's representative concerning
applications maintained in confidence under 35 U.S.C.    122(a), which
can be accessed via the USPTO's Internet Web site at
http://pair_direct.uspto.gov. To access the private side of PAIR to
check the patent term adjustment information contained in the USPTO's
records for an application, the person must have a digital certificate
and must have a customer number associated with the correspondence
address for the application.

   Information concerning the USPTO's PAIR system may be obtained
by contacting the Patent Electronic Business Center help desk at (703)
305-3028 or via the USPTO's Internet Web site at
http://www.uspto.gov/ebc/index.html. Other questions concerning patent
term adjustment may be directed to Kery Fries or Mark Polutta, Legal
Advisors, Office of Patent Legal Administration, at (703) 305-1383.

December 31, 2001                                          STEPHEN G. KUNIN
                                                    Deputy Commissioner for
                                                  Patent Examination Policy