MPEP Section 405, *>Patent Practitioner< Not of Record

Executive summary:

This document contains Section 405 ("*>Patent Practitioner< Not of Record") of the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (the "M.P.E.P."), Eighth Edition, Eighth Revision (July 2010). This page was last updated in January 2011. You may return to the section index to find a particular section. Alternatively, you may search the MPEP using the search box that appears on the left side of every page of BitLaw--you may restrict your search to the MPEP on the search results page.

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405 *>Patent Practitioner< Not of Record [R-5]

Papers may be filed in patent applications and reexamination proceedings by registered attorneys or agents not of record under 37 CFR 1.34. Filing of such papers is considered to be a representation that the attorney or agent is authorized to act in a representative capacity on behalf of applicant. However, interviews with a registered attorney or agent not of record will ordinarily be conducted based only on the information and files supplied by the attorney or agent in view of 35 U.S.C. 122. Interviews may be conducted with a registered practitioner who does not have a copy of the application file, but has proper authority from the applicant or attorney or agent of record in the form of a paper on file in the application. See also MPEP § 713.05. Such a paper may be an "Authorization to Act in a Representative Capacity." **>Form/PTO/SB/84,< "Authorization to Act in a Representative Capacity" is available from the USPTO Internet web site at http://www.uspto.gov/web/forms/sb0084.pdf.

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sample form - authorization to act in a representative capacity

A change of correspondence address or a document granting access (i.e., a power to inspect) may only be signed by an attorney or agent who is not of record if an executed oath or declaration has not been filed in the application. See 37 CFR 1.33(a) (correspondence address) and 1.14(c)(4).