Petition To Make Special Accelerated Examination Program (Submitted Via EFS-Web Only) {PTO-SB-28}

PTO/SB/28, PETITION TO MAKE SPECIAL UNDER ACCELERATED EXAMINATION PROGRAM, A grantable petition must meet the following conditions: 1. The petition to make special under the accelerated examination program must be filed with the application and accompanied by the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(h) or a statement that the claimed subject matter is directed to environmental quality, energy, or countering terrorism. 2. The application must be a non-reissue utility or design application filed under 35 U.S.C. 111(a). 3. The application must be filed electronically using the Office electronic filing system (EFS) or EFS-Web. 4. The application must be complete under 37 CFR 1.51 and in condition for examination on filing. For example, the application must be filed together with the basic filing fee, search fee, examination fee, and application size fee (if applicable), and an oath or declaration under 37 CFR 1.63. 5. The application must contain three (3) or fewer independent claims and twenty (20) or fewer total claims. The application may not contain any multiple dependent claims. The petition must include a statement that applicant will agree not to separately argue the patentability of any dependent claim during any appeal in the application. Specifically, the applicant is agreeing that the dependent claims will be grouped together with and not argued separately from the independent claim from which they depend in any appeal brief filed in the application (37 CFR 41.37(c)(1)(vii)). 6. The claims must be directed to a single invention. The petition must include a statement that applicant will agree to have a telephonic interview to make an election without traverse in a telephonic interview if the Office determines that all the claims are not directed to a single invention. 7. The petition must include a statement that applicant will agree to have an interview (including an interview before a first Office action) to discuss the prior art and any potential rejections or objections with the intention of clarifying and possibly resolving all issues with respect to patentability at that time. 8. At the time of filing, applicant must provide a statement that a preexamination search was conducted, including an identification of the field of search by United States class and subclass and the date of the search, where applicable, and, for database searches, the search logic or chemical structure or sequence used as a query, the name of the file or files searched and the database service, and the date of the search. a. This preexamination search must involve U.S. patents and patent application publications, foreign patent documents, and nonpatent literature, unless the applicant can justify with reasonable certainty that no references more pertinent than those already identified are likely to be found in the eliminated source and includes such a justification with this statement. b. This preexamination search must be directed to the claimed invention and encompass all of the features of the independent claims, giving the claims the broadest reasonable interpretation. c. The preexamination search must also encompass the disclosed features that may be claimed, in that an amendment to the claims (including any new claim) that is not encompassed by the preexamination search will be treated as non-responsive and will not be entered. d. A search report from a foreign patent office will not be accepted unless the search report satisfies the requirements set forth above. e. Any statement in support of a petition to make special must be based on a good faith belief that the preexamination search was conducted in compliance with these requirement. See 37 CFR 1.56 and 10.18. 9. At the time of filing, applicant must provide in support of the petition an accelerated examination support document that includes: a. An information disclosure statement in compliance with 37 CFR 1.98 citing each reference deemed most closely related to the subject matter of each of the claims; b. For each reference cited, an identification of all the limitations of the claims that are disclosed by the reference specifying where the limitation is disclosed in the cited reference; c. A detailed explanation of how each of the claims are patentable over the references cited with the particularity required by 37 CFR 1.111(b) and (c); d. A concise statement of the utility of the invention as defined in each of the independent claims (unless the application is a design application); e. An identification of any cited references that may be disqualified as prior art under 35 U.S.C. 103(c) as am ende d by the CREATE act; and f. A showing of where each limitation of the claims finds support under the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112 in the written description of the specification. If applicable, the showing must also identify: (1) each means- (or step-) plus-function claim element that invokes consideration under 35 U.S.C. 112, ¶6; and (2) the structure, material, or acts that correspond to any means- (or step-) plus-function claim element that invokes consideration under 35 U.S.C. 112, ¶6. If the application claims the benefit of one or more applications under title 35, United States Code, the showing must also include where each limitation of the claims finds support under the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112 in each such application in which such support exists. www.FormsWorkflow.com