Glossary

Patent bar

The USPTO's Examination for Registration to Practice in Patent Cases.

MPEP

Manual of Patent Examining Procedure, the USPTO's examiner manual and the only reference allowed on the patent bar.

Prior art

Earlier patents, publications and public disclosures used to judge whether an invention is new and nonobvious.

Office action

An examiner's written decision on an application, to which the applicant replies.

AIA

The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act of 2011, which moved the U.S. to first-inventor-to-file.

Provisional application

A lower-cost U.S. filing that holds a filing date for 12 months; it is not examined and must be followed by a nonprovisional application to keep the date.

Prometric

The testing company that delivers the patent bar at its test centers.

Patent prosecution

Preparing, filing and arguing a patent application before the USPTO until it is granted or abandoned.