37 CFR 41.3 — Petitions

Ninth Edition, Revision 01.2024

• (a) Deciding official. Petitions must be addressed to the Chief Administrative Patent Judge. A panel or an administrative patent judge may certify a question of policy to the Chief Administrative Patent Judge for decision. The Chief Administrative Patent Judge may delegate authority to decide petitions.
• (b) Scope. This section covers petitions on matters pending before the Board (§§ 41.35 , 41.64 , 41.103 , and 41.205 ); otherwise, see §§ 1.181 to 1.183 of this title. The following matters are not subject to petition:
  • (1) Issues committed by statute to a panel, and
  • (2) In pending contested cases, procedural issues. See § 41.121(a)(3) and § 41.125(c) .
• (c) Petition fee. The fee set in § 41.20(a) must accompany any petition under this section except no fee is required for a petition under this section seeking supervisory review.
• (d) Effect on proceeding. The filing of a petition does not stay the time for any other action in a Board proceeding.
• (e) Time for action.
  • (1) Except as otherwise provided in this part or as the Board may authorize in writing, a party may:
    • (i) File the petition within 14 days from the date of the action from which the party is requesting relief, and
    • (ii) File any request for reconsideration of a petition decision within 14 days of the decision on petition or such other time as the Board may set.
  • (2) A party may not file an opposition or a reply to a petition without Board authorization.

[Added, 69 FR 49959, Aug. 12, 2004, effective Sept. 13, 2004; para. (e)(1) revised, 69 FR 58260, Sept. 30, 2004, effective Sept. 30, 2004]