DOCTRINE OF POSTED HOURS

It is established by ordinance, pursuant to Title VII §4.12, that any submission tendered outside the posted hours of operation shall be tabled to the next ordinary session.ⁱ The hours of operation, fixed by departmental directive, are 09:00 through 17:00 on weekdays exclusive of designated holidays. Submissions delivered after the close of business shall be deemed received on the following business day for all purposes of computation, including but not limited to the running of statutory periods, the imposition of late penalties, and the calculation of priority among competing applications.

The Bureau records receipt by stamp, not by clock. A submission stamped at 17:01 is, by ordinance, a submission of the next morning. The Bureau does not entertain argument on this point. Discretion is reserved to the Director of Records, exercised only by written exception.

EVIDENCE OF FORMAL DEFICIENCY

Per §11.03, all applications must be submitted in the prescribed form, on prescribed paper stock not less than 80 g/m², in black or blue-black ink only.ⁱⁱ Submissions in pencil, in colored ink, or in electronic facsimile shall be returned for proper resubmission. The Bureau finds, on review of the present record, that 47.6% of submissions in the calendar quarter were materially deficient as to form, and were properly returned.

Form is not an aesthetic preference; it is the precondition of consideration. A document not in the prescribed form is, for purposes of administrative review, no document at all. The applicant is invited to resubmit; the running of the relevant statutory period is not tolled by the act of resubmission.

PRECEDENT FROM CHAMBER ORDERS

In In re Mavrakis, 14 Bur. 412 (1998), the Chamber held that the running of the period is interrupted only by act of the Bureau, not by act of the applicant.ⁱⁱⁱ The applicant's diligence is not a basis for tolling. The Bureau's failure to act, by contrast, tolls all periods until action is taken or twelve months elapse, whichever occurs first. The Chamber further held that no equitable doctrine, including laches, may be invoked against the Bureau in its administrative capacity.

The principle is one of asymmetric repose: the Bureau may rest, the applicant may not. This rule has been undisturbed for twenty-eight years. The applicant who submits is the applicant who bears the risk of delay.

RULING ON MERITS, IF REACHED

The merits are reached only after the formal threshold is satisfied.^iv Of submissions in the present cycle, the formal threshold was satisfied in 31.2% of cases. Of those, the merits were reviewed and a determination rendered. The remainder were not considered on the merits, and the silence of the record as to merits shall not be construed as approval, disapproval, or any disposition whatsoever.

A ruling on the merits, where rendered, is final upon issuance and bears the seal of the Bureau. It may be reconsidered only on petition filed within thirty days, accompanied by the requisite filing fee, on the prescribed form.

ARCHIVE; PRESERVATION OF RECORD

All records of disposition are archived in the principal Repository for a period of seventy-five years, after which they may be transferred to microform and the originals destroyed.^v The applicant is entitled, upon written request and on the prescribed form, to a certified copy of the record of disposition pertaining to that applicant. No certified copy shall issue except upon tender of the prescribed fee, currently $42.00 per item.

The Repository is open to the public on the third Wednesday of each month, between 10:00 and 14:00, exclusive of the months of June, July, and August. The applicant who fails to consult the record bears the consequence of unfamiliarity with it.

FINDING OF THE BUREAU

The Bureau, having considered the record before it, finds that the applicable standard is the standard of the Bureau, applied uniformly without favor.^vi The applicant's recourse is the applicant's own. The Bureau's responsibility is to the record, not to the applicant. So ordered.