← all examsApril 1999 · Afternoon Session
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICEREGISTRATION EXAMINATIONAPRIL 1999AFTERNOON SESSION
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Answer questions 1 and 2 based on the following facts: Registered patent attorneys, Will, Able and Fleet, are partners in their own California law firm specializing in patent law. As luck would have it, a PTO filing deadline falls due for each partner on Friday, February 12, 1999. Having to forego their weekly Friday afternoon discussion of the MPEP, all three partners are scrambling to finish their papers. Will is drafting a Continued Prosecution Application (CPA) under 37 CFR § 1.53(d) which must be filed by Friday, February 12, 1999. Having just received the client's instructions that morning, Able is replying to a Final Office action dated August 12, 1998, which set a three month shortened statutory period for reply. Fleet, working hard to satisfy a forgetful, new client, is putting the finishing touches on a nonprovisional patent application based on a provisional application his new client had filed on February 12, 1998. Finishing their work at 8:30 p.m. Pacific time, all three partners head to the mailroom. There is only one facsimile machine. With their deadline fast approaching, Will and Able begin to argue about who should use the facsimile machine first to send their papers to the PTO. A complete transmission of Able's amendment would take fifteen minutes. A complete transmission of Will's CPA would take ten minutes. Thankful that they had been studying their MPEP, Will and Able come to an agreement. At exactly 8:40 p.m. Pacific time, a first facsimile transmission is sent to the PTO from Will and Able's firm. Which one of the following choices outlines the best course of action taken by Will and Able so that both Will and Able's documents received a Friday, February 12, 1999, filing date?