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Why would an applicant opt out of authorizing foreign IP offices access to a U.S. patent application?

3/8/2018

 
​Clients normally won't do this.  I suppose there could be situations where certain clients don't trust how foreign government agencies will handle the sensitive/confidential information they have provided within their U.S. patent application.  

However, this section of the ADS is less about accommodating that group than it is about complying with other laws already in effect. More specifically, the United States has laws (e.g. , 35 U.S.C. 122) which require the USPTO to keep the inventor's application confidential (at least, until that patent application publishes 18 months after filing).  In earlier times, the patent applicant had to file an ADS, and then later submit additional forms which specifically granted the USPTO permission to share the contents of the patent application with foreign entities.  Over time, however, the rule became a procedural pain, because every time someone wanted to file a patent application in the U.S. and in other countries (which happened a large number of times), these extra forms also had to be submitted.  Extra fees also had to be paid by the patent applicant with the submission of these forms.  

So after some lobbying from the ABA and other groups, Congress decided to make the process more streamlined by switching to the "opt-out" approach that you see now.  These days, when you file an ADS, your default position is that you authorize foreign agencies to access your U.S. patent application.  Rather than forcing a large group of people to "opt in" with additional forms and fees, a much smaller group of people who want to "opt-out" can do so by checking the appropriate "opt-out" boxes. Again, the section is mainly just a byproduct of the laws that require the USPTO to keep patent applications confidential until they are given written permission by the patent applicant to do otherwise.

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