Expired patents may be reinstated if late payment of the maintenance fees is accepted. The database includes notices of requests for reexamination as well as the reexamination results. Patents may be reissued if the changes are substantial enough to necessitate republication rather than issuance of correction notices. Reissue requests are recorded in File 123, but reissue patent records can be found in File 340. Interference actions resulting in adverse decisions will adversely affect patent owners' rights to the patent.
All records contain the orginal patent assignee, patent number, and publication date.
Other post-issuance status information typically contains the date of the legal action, the date it was recorded in the Official Gazette and any additional applicable information such as request number, descriptive text, etc. Reexamination records also contain the text of any modified claims. Use MAP PN TEMP To save patent numbers for searching in other files. This database includes all U.S. patents for which post-issuance legal status changes described above have been reported. Under no circumstances may copies under the provision be offered for resale or sale.