(8)                   Establishment of a Special Box for
                          Design Patent Applications

  Effective immediately, the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), as a
part of the current reengineering effort, has established a special box
for filing design patent applications and papers for design
applications. Use of this box will allow the PTO to provide more
efficient and effective handling of these applications and papers for
customers.

To take advantage of this new service, the envelope should be addressed:
   
   Box Design
   Assistant Commissioner for Patents
   Washington, D.C. 20231

Because all processing of design patent applications, including fee
processing, from the initial filing of the design patent application
through payment of the design issue fee will now be performed in
Examining Group 2900, design patent applications and all papers for
these applications may be hand-carried directly to Examining Group 2900
or mailed to Box Design. Petitions and amendments filed under 37 CFR
1.312 submitted for design patent applications will also be processed in
Examining Group 2900 and thus may be filed directly in Examining Group
2900 or mailed to Box Design. All regular methods of filing papers for
design patent applications will still be available but the utilization
of Box Design will enable the PTO to provide better customer service.

In order to facilitate speedier processing of papers, it is requested
that papers and fees for design patent applications be submitted
separately from papers and fees for utility patent applications.

Point of Contact for this Notice:

Name: John Kittle
Telephone number: (703) 308-1495
Fax number: (703) 305-3600

May 10, 1996                                            EDWARD R. KAZENSKE
                                             Deputy Assistant Commissioner
                                                               for Patents

                                 [1187 OG 37]