Revised Patent Rules concerning Final Action procedures
and re-examination proceedings were published in Part II of the Canada Gazette on December 18,
2013. The amendments will come into force on January 17,
2014.
CIPO will publish a revised Chapter 21 of the Manual of Patent Office Practice (MOPOP),
which the Office will follow as the guidelines for practice as of
January 17, 2014.
The new 'After Final' rules attempt to give structure to
a procedure that has been only informally defined for many
years.
Helpfully for applicants, revised Chapter 21 of the MOPOP
includes the instruction to Examiners that a Final Action is not to
be issued unless at least one non-final action has previously been
sent to the applicant in respect of each ground of rejection that
is sustained in the Final Action. This instruction may tend to
encourage all rejections to be brought forward early in prosecution
so that issues may be fully developed in the file history prior to
a Final
