MPEP § 1125 — MPEP § 1125
Current through: 2022-07-01

1125-Express Abandonment to Avoid Publication 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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 Manual of Patent Examining Procedure 

 Chapter 1100 

 Section 1125 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 1125 Express Abandonment to Avoid Publication [R-01.2024]

 
 37 CFR 1.138 Express abandonment 

 *****

 
 (c) An applicant seeking to abandon an application to avoid
 publication of the application ( 37 CFR 1.211(a)(1) ) must
 submit a declaration of express abandonment by way of a petition under this
 paragraph including the fee set forth in §
 1.17(h) in sufficient time to permit the appropriate
 officials to recognize the abandonment and remove the application from the
 publication process. Applicants should expect that the petition will not be
 granted and the application will be published in regular course unless such
 declaration of express abandonment and petition are received by the appropriate
 officials more than four weeks prior to the projected date of publication.
 

 
 *****

 

 Applicants seeking to abandon an application to avoid publication of the
 application are urged to do so by filing a petition under 37 CFR 1.138(c) and
 submitting a declaration of express abandonment and the fee set forth in 37 CFR
 1.17(h) in sufficient time to permit the appropriate officials
 (Office of Data Management – Patent Publication Branch) to recognize the abandonment and
 remove the application from the publication process. Applicants may use form PTO/AIA/24A
 for applications filed on or after September 16, 2012 or form PTO/SB/24A for applications
 filed before September 16, 2012 for filing a petition for express abandonment to avoid
 publication under 37 CFR
 1.138(c) .(see MPEP § 1135 ) and file the petition
 electronically using the USPTO patent electronic filing system, or mail the petition to
 Mail Stop Express Abandonment , or transmit the petition via facsimile to
 the Office at (571) 273 8300 (see MPEP § 1730 ). Filing the petition using
 the USPTO patent electronic filing system will increase the chances of such petition being
 received by the appropriate officials in sufficient time to avoid publication of an
 application.
 

 Any applicant seeking to abandon the application for the purpose of
 avoiding publication must take appropriate action well prior to the projected publication
 date. If the application is not recognized as abandoned at least four weeks prior to the
 projected publication date, the Office will not be able to avoid publication of the
 application. This does not imply that a request to expressly abandon an application to
 avoid publication filed prior to this four-week time frame will ensure that the Office will
 be able to remove an application from publication. The Office simply cannot ensure that it
 can remove an application from publication or avoid publication of application information
 any time after the publication process for the application is initiated (about 4 months
 prior to the projected publication date).
 

 The petition for express abandonment to avoid publication will be granted
 when it is recognized in sufficient time to avoid publication and will be denied when it is
 not recognized in sufficient time to avoid publication of the application. This will avert
 the situation in which an applicant files a letter of express abandonment to avoid
 publication, the letter of express abandonment is not recognized in sufficient time to
 avoid publication, upon publication the applicant wishes to rescind the letter of express
 abandonment, and the Office cannot revive the application (once the letter of express
 abandonment is recognized) because the application was expressly and intentionally
 abandoned by the applicant.
 

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 1101-Request for Statutory Invention Registration (SIR) 

 1102-1110-[Reserved] 

 1111-SIR Publication and Effect 

 1112-1119-[Reserved] 

 1120-Eighteen-Month Publication of Patent Applications 

 1121-Content of a Patent Application Publication 

 1122-Requests for Nonpublication 

 1123-Rescission of a Nonpublication Request 

 1124-Notice of Foreign Filing 

 1125-Express Abandonment to Avoid Publication 

 1126-Publication Fees 

 1127-Notice of Publication 

 1128-Availability of Published Applications 

 1129-Request for Early Publication 

 1130-Republication and Correction of Patent Application Publications 

 1131-[Reserved] 

 1132-Requests for Redacted Publication 

 1133-Voluntary Publication 

 1134-Third Party Inquiries and Correspondence in a Published Application 
 1134.01-Third Party Submissions Under 37 CFR 1.290 

 
 

 1135-PGPub Forms 

 

 

 
 

 
 
 

 
 

 

 
 
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 Last Modified: 
 
 03/09/2026 20:49:24