Manual of Patent Examining Procedure: Digital Archive

Last week, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (http://www.uspto.gov) unveiled a complete digital archive of its Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP), at http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/old/index.htm. The archive includes PDF copies of all editions and revisions since the debut of the Manual in 1948.

Previously, editions of MPEP prior to 1995 were available from USPTO only on microform, and had to be requested from the agency or accessed in person at the USPTO Public Search Facility.

Duke University users have online access to archives of MPEP via HeinOnline's Manual of Patent Examining Procedure Library (http://library.duke.edu/metasearch/db/id/DUK00693), although not all revisions are yet available there. (The HeinOnline library also does not include the "original" 1948 edition of MPEP, which precedes the "original" Nov. 1949 1st edition which begins the Hein collection.)

For more information about researching patent law, check out the Law Library's research guide to Intellectual Property Law Resources.