Publication Formats and Update Policy
 
Introduction

Intellectual Property Publications from the U.S. Government come from various sources, but most are produced by the Department of Commerce which is the parent department for the Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The MPEP, TMEP, TBMP (a.k.a.TTAB manual)  are all products of the USPTO. Publications such as the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) can be changed by new/changed departmental rules, judicial rulings and by changes in the law., while the US Code (USC) is updated based only on changes to our laws enacted by the U.S. Congress. The USPTO includes certain sections of the USC and CFR relevant to IP Law in the MPEP and TMEP. 

This page answers the following questions:


We closely monitor all changes that affect the following publications:
 
1.  U.S. Code Title 17 (Copyrights), Title 35 (Patents) Title 15 (chap. 22 & 63, Trademarks)
2.  Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) 
3.  Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure (TMEP)
4.  Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Manual (TBMP or TTAB Manual - USPTO prefers "TBMP" acronym)
5.  Title 37 of the Code of Federal Regulations (37 CFR)

IP Data Corp. keeps in constant contact with various offices inside the USPTO, and we receive several different automated notifications from the U.S. Congress for publication updates and revisions, but quite often, even the offices responsible for these publications are unsure of exact release dates for these changes. That said, it is a very important part of our job to keep you informed and offer you the very latest publications and changes as we receive them.


Changes to Publications come in 3 forms:
 
Minor Changes 
or Revisions:
One or more minor corrections to a publication are issued by the responsible office, and this is usually from 1 to 20 pages of changes (for manuals  750 to 2600 pages), and they usually deal with one or two topics, or a collection of typographical errors. These are sent out in pamphlet form for soft cover owners, and page changes for 3 ring owners. For some publications, this type of change can happen once, twice or even 3 times a year.
Major Revision: This is a change that generally affects one or more whole chapters and could affect as many as 100 to 500 pages. On occasion, they may refer to a change as a Revision, but it possibly affects the entire contents of the publication. For some publications, this type of change can happen once or twice a year.
New Edition: These almost always change major portions, and possibly the format of, the publication involved. The entire contents of the manual have changed significantly and the entire publication text must usually be changed. This rarely happens more often than once a year, and with some manuals such as the TTAB Manual (TBMP), this hasn't happened in over six years.

How these changes affect each of our publication formats and our update policy: 

We offer all manuals in Soft cover format and on CD-ROM in PDF format.  Here are our policies and procedures for updates:

Soft Cover:

Type of Change Manual Was Purchased 
relative to change
Cost of Update
Minor Changes or Revisions  Within last year Cost + Shipping & Handling  for   pamphlet
Major Revision or New Edition Within last 30 days Shipping & Handling Only for New Copy
Major Revision or new Edition 30 Days to 6 months  30% OFF cover price plus shipping and handling
Major Revision or new Edition 6 Months to 1 year 20% OFF cover price plus shipping and handling
Major Revision or new Edition Over 1 year 10% OFF cover price plus shipping and handling

Note: Our shipping and handling costs are very reasonable. We do not add additional charges beyond the cost of the materials to pack (box, labels, packing materials) and the fees to actually ship products to you. We use UPS as our primary ground and air delivery service.




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