Patent Terms Glossary

USPTO

Definition:
United States Patent and Trademark Office, designation became effective April 3, 2000; a result of the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999.

Opposition Proceeding

Definition:
A proceeding before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in which the plaintiff seeks to prevent the issuance of a registration of a mark.

Consisting Essentially Of

Definition:
A transitional phrase that limits the scope of a claim to the specified materials or steps and those that do not materially affect the basic and novel characteristics of the claimed invention.

Counterpart

Definition:
An application filed in a foreign patent office that is substantially similar to (like) the patent application filed with the USPTO and is based upon some or all of the same invention.

Trade Secret

Definition:
Information that companies keep secret to give them an advantage over their competitors.

Group Art Unit

Definition:
A working unit responsible for a cluster of related patent art. Staffed by one supervisory patent examiner (SPE) and a number of patent examiners who determine patentability on applications for a patent.

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