What are the grounds for petitioning a requirement under 37 CFR 1.105?

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.

Petitions to requirements under 37 CFR 1.105 can be filed on the following grounds:

• Relevance: The requirement is not relevant to the examination of the application.
• Proprietary information: The required information is trade secret, proprietary, or subject to a protective order.
• Undue burden: The requirement would place an unreasonable burden on the applicant.

As stated in MPEP 704.14(c): Where information is required to be submitted in a response to a requirement under 37 CFR 1.105, there are three typical reasons that a requirement for information may be petitioned: (A) the requirement was made pursuant to 37 CFR 1.105(a)(1) instead of 37 CFR 1.105(a)(2); (B) the information required was not known to any individual designated in 37 CFR 1.56(c) and was not readily available to the applicant; or (C) the requirement was not appropriate for the stage of prosecution that the application was in when the requirement was made.