The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) changed the rules for recording assignments and accepting power of attorney documents. Fed. Reg. Vol. 69, No. 102, 29865-29880. These changes are effective on June 25, 2004.
Under revised rule §3.24(b), the USPTO will no longer return assignment documents, which will be scanned to obtain an electronic image and then destroyed. Accordingly, the USPTO now requires a copy or an extract of the original assignment documents to be submitted. Do not submit the original. The USPTO will also accept an assignment via an electronic submission in Tagged Image File Format (TIFF), as set forth in rule §3.24(a).
New rule §1.32 (c)(2) states that a power of attorney may name registered practitioners associated with a customer number. The comments with the rules suggest that any number of registered practitioners may be associated with a customer number. The comments also explain that using the customer number to associate the registered practitioners with the power of attorney will "eliminate the undue processing burden on the Office when a power of attorney naming more than ten patent practitioners is submitted in patent applications." The comments also advise to "specify in a power of attorney, that each of the patent practitioners associated with a customer number have a power of attorney."
New rule §1.32 (c)(3) states that a power of attorney may only list ten or fewer registered patent attorneys or registered patent agents. If greater than ten practitioners are named in a power or attorney, the power of attorney must be accompanied by a separate paper indicating which ten practitioners are to be recognized by the USPTO. The comments with the rule change suggest that a power of attorney that does not follow these rules may not be recognized.
The customer number will be used to designate the correspond-ence address and the fee address and also may be used to change the correspondence address and fee address for a large number of cases. However, the comments accompanying the rules advise that an applicant must provide "in a single document, both a complete typed address and a customer number and request that both be used for the correspondence address."
The practice of providing an "associate power of attorney" is intended to be replaced with an "Authorization to Act in a Representative Capacity," new §1.34. The new practice simply requires a registered practitioner to specify a customer’s registration number and name when signing. The comments explain that the associate power of attorney practice will not be necessary since the practitioners who have power of attorney can easily be changed by changing the listing of practitioners with a customer number.
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