Control of Inspection by Assignee

The applicant or assignee of record of the entire interest in an

application may file an application or intervene in the prosecution of the application,

appointing an attorney or agent of his or her own choice. See

37 CFR 1.46

and

3.71

. Such an application filing or intervention, however, does not

exclude the inventor from access to the application to see that it is being prosecuted

properly, unless the applicant or assignee makes specific request to that effect. Any

request to prevent the inventor from obtaining access to the file should be filed as a

separate paper,

37 CFR

1.4(c)

, and should be directed to the Office of Petitions. If the

request is granted, the inventor will be informed that he or she will only be permitted to

inspect the application on sufficient showing why such inspection is necessary to conserve

his or her rights. Of course, after the application has published pursuant to

35 U.S.C.

122(b)

, the application will be available to the public and any

restriction on the inventor to access his or her application previously granted will no

longer be in effect.