How should claims be presented in an appeal brief for a reissue application?

This page is an FAQ based on guidance from the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure. It is provided as guidance, with links to the ground truth sources. This is information only: it is not legal advice.

In an appeal brief for a reissue application, the claims on appeal should be presented with special formatting. According to MPEP 1454:

“The claims on appeal presented in an appeal brief for a reissue application should include all underlining and bracketing necessary to reflect the changes made to the patent claims during the prosecution of the reissue application. In addition, any new claims added in the reissue application should be completely underlined.”

This means that you must show all modifications to the original patent claims using underlining for additions and bracketing for deletions. Any entirely new claims should be fully underlined to indicate they are new to the reissue application.