What are examples of rectifiable obvious mistakes in a PCT application?
According to MPEP 1836, examples of obvious mistakes that are rectifiable in a PCT application include:
- Linguistic errors
- Spelling errors
- Grammatical errors
These errors can be rectified as long as the meaning of the disclosure does not change upon entry of the rectification. The MPEP states:
“Examples of obvious mistakes that are rectifiable include linguistic errors, spelling errors and grammatical errors so long as the meaning of the disclosure does not change upon entry of the rectification.”
However, it’s important to note that:
- Changes to chemical or mathematical formulas would not generally be rectifiable unless they would be common knowledge to anyone.
- A missing chemical formula or missing line of text would not be considered to be an obvious mistake subject to rectification.
The key criterion is that the mistake must be obvious to the competent authority, meaning they would immediately realize that something else was intended and that nothing else could have been intended than the proposed rectification.
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