USPTO Continues Efforts to Streamline Processes

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has announced that, beginning on January 30, 2024, they will start issuing Certificates of Correction (COC) for patents electronically.  This is the latest change in the USPTO’s continued efforts to streamline their processes; last April the USPTO began issuing electronic patent grants (eGrants). Currently, a COC is issued in paper and mailed to the correspondence address of record. With this change, an issued COC will be viewable and printable by both patent owners and the public immediately upon issuance via Patent Center. An image of the COC will be entered into the file wrapper and added to the image of the patent in the patent database. Procedural aspects of requesting a COC and the standards for granting the requests will not change.