You may have noticed that some of the USPTO forms have officially expired as of 11/30/2020. The USPTO has informed us that these forms will not be updated until January of 2021. Therefore, you can continue to use the forms in their current iteration until the new forms are released in early 2021. If for some reason, the USPTO chooses to further postpone their form updates, we will bring that information to you as soon as possible.
Important Expiring Forms:
- Application Data Sheet (AIA/14)
- Fee Transmittal (SB/17)
- Information Disclosure Statement (SB/08a and SB/08b)
- Nonpublication Request (SB/35)
- Oath and Declaration (AIA/01 and AIA/08)
- Transmittal Form (SB/21)
- Utility Patent Application Transmittal (AIA/15)
Additionally, we’ve been told not to expect too many changes to the next version of the forms. This is great news because it allows applicants to continue working with the form layouts that they have become familiar with over the past several years. However, as always, any updates made to the forms will be covered in the Filing Category of our Patent Hacks Learning Center.
For those who are not familiar with USPTO form expiration dates, we have provided an example in Figure 1 below. As can be seen, the expiration date is boxed in by a red rectangle in the top right of the document.
