Data / Federal rules / 2024-06126
Signature Requirements Related to Acceptance of Electronic Signatures for Patent Correspondence
The Patent and Trademark Office published this final rule in the Federal Register on March 22, 2024. It took effect on March 22, 2024.
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What the agency says
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or Office) is revising the rules of practice in patent cases to update the signature rule to provide for the broader permissibility of electronic signatures using third-party document-signing software, such as DocuSign[supreg] and Acrobat[supreg] Sign, and more closely align signature requirements with the rules of practice in trademark cases. The revised rules will provide additional flexibility and convenience to patent applicants and owners, practitioners, and other parties who sign patent-related correspondence, and promote consistency by establishing signature requirements which are common to both patent and trademark matters.
Key facts
- Document number
- 2024-06126
- Type
- Final rule
- Action
- Final rule
- Agency
- Commerce Department; Patent and Trademark Office
- Published
- March 22, 2024
- Takes effect
- March 22, 2024
- Dates
- This final rule is effective on March 22, 2024.
- Docket
- Docket No. PTO-P-2023-0054
- Regulation ID (RIN)
- 0651-AD73
- Code of Federal Regulations
- 37 CFR 1
- Topics
- Administrative practice and procedure; Biologics; Courts; Freedom of information; Inventions and patents; Reporting and recordkeeping requirements; Small businesses
- Pages
- 4
Other documents from the Patent and Trademark Office
Everything from the Patent and Trademark Office · Rules on administrative practice and procedure · Rules on biologics · Rules on courts · Published in March 2024
Read from the Federal Register API, last updated 2026-10-23. The document on federalregister.gov is the official record; dates and dockets can change through later corrections. Free to reuse with credit to SpecStream under CC BY 4.0.