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The deadlines and rules the exam leans on, on one page. The exam is 100 questions in 6 hours across two sessions, and it tests MPEP 9th ed., Revision 01.2024 (November 2024). Our areas: Patentability: 101, 102, 103 and 112; Filing, fees, benefit and priority; Examination and prosecution; Appeals, petitions, issue and post-issuance; Reexamination and AIA trials; PCT and international; Ethics and representation. Checked 12 Oct 2026; check the MPEP section when a period matters to you.
Patent Bar Prep is an independent study aid. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or approved by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) or its Office of Enrollment and Discipline (OED). Bank questions are original; USPTO-released exam questions are shown only in separate, labelled sets. A revision aid, not legal advice.
Know the numbers? Now apply them.
Most questions put these periods into a fact pattern with real dates.
| Rule | What to remember | Source |
|---|---|---|
| The exam | 100 five-choice questions (90 scored), two 3-hour sessions of 50, 70% to pass | OED GRB IX.B; USPTO registration page |
| AIA grace period | Inventor-originated disclosures 1 year or less before the effective filing date are not prior art | 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(1); MPEP 2153 |
| AIA applies | Any claim with an effective filing date on or after March 16, 2013 | MPEP 2159 |
| Provisional to nonprovisional | Within 12 months of the provisional (restorable on petition if unintentional) | 35 U.S.C. 119(e); 37 CFR 1.78(a)-(b); MPEP 211.01(a) |
| Foreign priority | 12 months from the foreign filing (6 months for designs) | 35 U.S.C. 119(a); MPEP 213.03 |
| Benefit/priority claim in an ADS | Later of 4 months from filing or 16 months from the prior application | 37 CFR 1.55(d), 1.78(a)(4), (d)(3) |
| Deadline on a weekend or federal holiday | Moves to the next business day | 35 U.S.C. 21(b); 37 CFR 1.7 |
| Reply to an Office action | Usually a 3-month shortened period, extendable for fees up to the 6-month statutory maximum | 35 U.S.C. 133; 37 CFR 1.134, 1.136(a); MPEP 710.02(b) |
| Appeal brief | 2 months from the notice of appeal, extendable under 1.136 | 37 CFR 41.37(a), (e) |
| Reply brief | 2 months from the examiner's answer | 37 CFR 41.41(a) |
| Issue fee | 3 months from the notice of allowance; not extendable | 35 U.S.C. 151; 37 CFR 1.311(a) |
| IDS without fee or statement | Within 3 months of filing or national stage entry, or before the first action on the merits | 37 CFR 1.97(b); MPEP 609.04(b) |
| Third-party preissuance submission | Before the notice of allowance and before the later of 6 months after publication or the first rejection | 35 U.S.C. 122(e); 37 CFR 1.290(b) |
| Foreign filing license | Needed to file abroad within 6 months of the US filing unless granted (usually on the filing receipt) | 35 U.S.C. 184; 37 CFR 5.11; MPEP 140 |
| Broadening reissue | Filed within 2 years of the grant | 35 U.S.C. 251(d); MPEP 1412.03 |
| Maintenance fees (utility only) | Pay 3-3.5, 7-7.5 and 11-11.5 years after grant, or in the next 6 months with a surcharge | 35 U.S.C. 41(b); 37 CFR 1.362(d)-(e) |
| Utility / design term | 20 years from the earliest US nonprovisional filing date / 15 years from grant | 35 U.S.C. 154(a)(2), 173; MPEP 2701, 1505 |
| PCT national stage | 30 months from the priority date | 35 U.S.C. 371; 37 CFR 1.495; MPEP 1893.01 |
| Post-grant review | Petition within 9 months of grant | 35 U.S.C. 321(c) |
| Inter partes review | After 9 months from grant (or PGR end); barred 1 year after service of an infringement complaint | 35 U.S.C. 311(c), 315(b) |
| AIA trial decision | Final written decision within 1 year of institution (extendable up to 6 months for good cause) | 35 U.S.C. 316(a)(11), 326(a)(11) |
Eligibility asks whether a claim falls in a statutory category and, if it recites a judicial exception, whether it integrates it into a practical application or adds significantly more. Utility asks whether the invention has a specific, substantial and credible use.
AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 decides what counts as prior art for applications with any claim effectively filed on or after March 16, 2013. Work every question from the claim's effective filing date: what was public before it, what U.S. patent documents were effectively filed before it, and which 102(b) exception removes them.
Applications whose every claim has always had an effective filing date before March 16, 2013 are still examined under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102. The key split: 102(a), (e) and (g) depend on the date of invention and can be sworn behind; 102(b) and (d) depend on the U.S. filing date and cannot.
Obviousness asks whether the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date (AIA) or at the time of invention (pre-AIA). The examiner makes the prima facie case; the applicant answers with argument and Rule 132 evidence.
Section 112 governs what the specification must teach and how claims must be written. During examination, claims receive their broadest reasonable interpretation, and amendments cannot add new matter.
Know what gets a filing date, what can come later, and who signs what. Since December 18, 2013, a utility nonprovisional needs only a specification (claims optional) and any required drawings for a filing date; designs still need a claim.
Most exam errors here are date errors: compute periods from the mailing date, add any purchased extension, then move a weekend or federal holiday end date to the next business day. Separately, know how papers are dated and how entity status works.
A benefit or priority claim gives a claim an earlier effective filing date if the earlier application supports it and the formal requirements are met: timing, copendency or the priority year, a reference in the ADS on time, and (for foreign priority) a certified copy.
Designs protect the ornamental appearance of an article; plants protect asexually reproduced new varieties. Both use a single claim, and both differ from utility practice on term, publication, priority and fees.
This area tests how prosecution moves after the first action: what a complete reply is, when an action may be final, what can still be done after final, and how periods for reply and extensions are counted. Hold onto one idea: the period for reply always runs, and only a complete, timely reply (or a paid extension) stops abandonment.
This area tests when the Office may split an application, what a reply to a restriction requirement must contain, and how double patenting is avoided or overcome. The one idea to hold onto: restriction creates the 35 U.S.C. 121 shield for divisionals, while terminal disclaimers cure only nonstatutory double patenting.
Everyone substantively involved in an application owes the Office candor until the patent issues. Information disclosure statements carry the duty out, under a three-tier timing scheme; third parties have their own routes in, through preissuance submissions and protests.
This area tests the route for review (appeal to the Board for rejections, petition to the Director for procedural rulings), the deadlines of an ex parte appeal, and how an abandoned application is brought back. Hold onto one idea: appeal periods count from the paper that starts them, most are not extendable under 1.136(a), and revival needs unintentional delay throughout.
This area tests what can still be done after a notice of allowance, and which tool fixes an issued patent: a certificate of correction, a reissue or a statutory disclaimer. Hold onto one idea: anything that changes claim scope needs reissue, broadening needs it within two years, and the issue fee date closes most doors before grant.
This area tests how long a utility patent lasts and what lengthens or ends it: the 20-year term, patent term adjustment for Office delay, extension for regulatory review, and maintenance fees. Hold onto one idea: term runs from the earliest non-provisional U.S. or PCT filing relied on, adjustment is Office delay minus applicant delay, and unpaid maintenance fees end the patent at 4, 8 or 12 years.
After grant, a patent can be revisited by ex parte reexamination (anyone, patents and publications), supplemental examination (owner only, any information) or an AIA trial at the PTAB: inter partes review, post-grant review or a derivation proceeding. Each has its own who, when, what and threshold.
Three systems meet here: U.S. export control of inventions (secrecy orders and foreign filing licenses), the PCT for utility applications, and the Hague Agreement for designs. Most questions are about time limits counted from the priority date.
The USPTO Rules of Professional Conduct (37 CFR 11.101-11.901, adopted by the 2013 final rule) follow the ABA Model Rules with patent-specific additions. Representation rules in 37 CFR 1.31-1.36 govern powers of attorney and withdrawal.
The exam tests MPEP 9th ed., Rev. 01.2024 (Nov 2024) until OED announces new source materials. These are the patent rule changes since then that matter in practice. Know them for your clients; answer exam questions from the tested MPEP.
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