What happens if a petition to initiate a derivation proceeding does not include the required fee?

In a derivation proceeding, the rules set by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) require that a petition includes not only the necessary information but also the proper fee to be considered valid. If the petition does not include the required fee, the consequences are clear: no filing date will be awarded. The absence of this fee means that the petition does not meet the administrative requirements for processing, and as a result, it is not considered properly filed. This ensures that the USPTO maintains a systematic approach to administrating such proceedings, and only those petitions that comply with all formal requirements, including fee payment, are recognized and processed. Therefore, without the fee, the petition is essentially incomplete, which directly leads to the conclusion that no filing date is assigned.