Patent Term Extension Information
                under 35 U.S.C.   154(b) and 37 C.F.R.    1.701
               Printed on the Notice of Allowance and the Patent
   
  
The Patent and Trademark Office has recently implemented a new system
for automatically calculating and printing on the notice of allowance
any Patent Term Extension (PTE) to which a patent is entitled under 35
U.S.C.    154(b) and 37 C.F.R.    1.701. PTE information will be printed
on a notice of allowance in the box provided for and to the right of the
first inventor's last name. If the PTE is less than five years, it will
be printed in days, for example, "35 USC 154(b) term ext. = 365 days."
Since the maximum PTE under    154(b) is five (5) years, if the PTE is
equal to five (5) years, the system will simply print out "35 USC 154(b)
term ext. = 5 years." The PTE information printed on the notice of
allowance will also be used to print PTE information on the face of a
patent in generally the position for the terminal disclaimer information.

If an applicant disagrees with the PTE information printed on the notice
of allowance, the applicant may request review by way of a petition
under 37 C.F.R.    1.181. To avoid loss of patent term due to the time
required to process and decide a    1.181 petition, the Office will
ordinarily not postpone issuance of a patent while the petition is
pending. If the petition is granted after the patent issues, a
Certificate of Correction pursuant to 37 C.F.R.    1.322 will be issued.
If an error is noted after the patent issues, the patent owner may seek
correction of the PTE information printed on the face of a patent by
filing a request for a Certificate of Correction pursuant to    1.322.

Petitions and Certificates of Correction regarding PTE under 35 U.S.C.  
 154(b) should be addressed to "Box DAC, Assistant Commissioner for
Patents, Washington, D.C. 20231" and will be decided in the Special
Program Law Office.

Inquiries regarding this matter should be directed to Karin Tyson or
John F. Gonzales, Senior Legal Advisors, at (703) 305-9285.

November 3, 1998                                           STEPHEN G. KUNIN
                                              Deputy Assistant Commissioner
                                             for Patent Policy and Projects