Patent Laws, Rules, and Procedures Under 35 U.S.C. and 37 C.F.R.
Statutory framework
Candidates must navigate the core statutes: 101 (eligibility and utility), 102 (novelty and prior art categories, including the AIA's effective-filing-date rules), 103 (obviousness), 112 (enablement, written description, definiteness, best mode), and 119/120 (priority and benefit). The AIA changed 102 to a first-inventor-to-file system with a defined prior art universe: patents and printed publications before the effective filing date, plus certain public uses, sales, and other disclosures. Exceptions under 102(b)(1) cover the inventor's own disclosure within one year and disclosures derived from the inventor.
Rules practice
37 C.F.R. governs mechanics: 1.53 (filing), 1.78 (benefit claims), 1.131 (swearing behind pre-AIA art), 1.132 (declarations), 1.136 (extensions of time), and 1.134 (after-final practice). Fees, small-entity and micro-entity status, and proper signatures under 1.33 are frequent test points.
Traps
A common trap is mixing pre-AIA and AIA 102 frameworks; the applicable statute depends on the effective filing date (March 16, 2013). Another is the 102(b)(1) grace period: it applies to inventor-originated disclosures, not to third-party art unrelated to the inventor. Also watch 1.131: it cannot be used to overcome a patent or printed publication under AIA 102(a)(1) in the same way as pre-AIA practice.
Rule of thumb
For any prior-art question, first fix the effective filing date, then ask whether the reference is a patent/printed publication or an activity, then test the exceptions. Label each step; most errors come from skipping the date step.