When are new drawings required before examination in a patent application?

New drawings may be required before examination in several situations:

• When drawings have not been filed, but a drawing will aid in understanding the invention (see MPEP § 608.02).
• When applications appear to be missing drawings (see MPEP § 601.01(f) or 601.01(g)).
• When the Office of Patent Application Processing (OPAP) finds the drawings unacceptable for publication.
• When the supervisory patent examiner believes the drawings do not permit reasonable examination.

As stated in the MPEP: If at the time of the initial assignment of an application to an examiner’s docket, or if at the time the application is taken up for action, the supervisory patent examiner believes the drawings to be of such a condition as to not permit reasonable examination of the application, applicant should be required to immediately submit corrected drawings.

To learn more:

• patent drawings
• OPAP
• examination requirements
• corrected drawings