From: BNegrin@LLBL.com
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2001 11:08 AM
To: AB37 Comments
Subject: elimination of CPA procedures

Dear Commissioner,

I am wholly in favor of the elimination of CPA practice as it applies to
utility and plant patent applications.  RCE practice, the new millennium's
answer to Rule 62 file wrapper continuation, suffices nicely.  Moreover,
there are thousands of patent applications which were filed prior to
November 29, 2000 on which CPAs were filed after November 29, 2000 simply to
continue the examination process.  In many cases, the application is about
ready to issue, and yet a superfluous publication fee is being exacted from
the applicant, well beyond the 18-month publication time limit.  It seems
burdensome on the applicant to have to pay an additional $300 when his/her
entire file wrapper will be laid bare upon imminent issue.  The situation is
similar to that described in 37 CFR § 1.211(a)(3): "the application has
issued as a patent in sufficient time to be removed from the publication
process" (although, in the case described, the application will issue as a
patent soon enough that it does not substantively matter if it is published
or not).

Actually, I would recommend that CPA practice be completely eliminated and
have RCE practice expanded to include design patents.  Why does the PTO need
to have different rules for design applications when the desired result is
the same (i.e., continued examination)?  CPA practice, with its technical
abandonment of an application in favor of another application that has the
same serial number, seems entirely superfluous.

Respectfully,

Barry E. Negrin
Reg. No. 37,407
New York, NY
(212) 486-7272
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