Waijee's Blog

35 U.S.C: United States Code, Title 35
37 C.F.R: Code of Federal Rules, Title 37

35 USC § 154(b) 主要規範專利期限調整 (PTA)，該條文明文提供三項保證：

Essential means that the patent is necessarily used when implementing a standard in a product or that there is no reasonably viable alternative for implementing the standard. In order to comply with anti-trust regulations in major countries only essential patents are to be included in the patent pool. Essential patents cover both technically essential patents and commercially essential patents.

"Patents based on applications filed on or after May 29, 2000 (actual filing date, not priority date), might have had their terms extended for Patent Office delays beyond certain limits. Such extensions, called "patent term adjustments", are automatically given when the patent is issued, and they are usually marked on the face of the patent, flagged with "(*)". For example, see patent 7,613,700 - "(*) Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 USC 154(b) by 291 days." These adjustments are calculated mathematically based on a formula which takes into account when each office action was sent by the USPTO as compared with a standard for such actions, and subtracts any delays caused by the applicant's delay, and so on. "