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~ August 2003~
U.S. PTO Waives Certain
Requirements with Respect to Information Disclosure Statements
All U.S. applications filed after
June 30, 2003 are being stored by the U.S. PTO in electronic
form. As an additional measure to assist in creating a truly
electronic patent application file, the PTO is waiving the
requirement that applicants submit copies of each U.S. patent
and each U.S. patent application publication cited in
Information Disclosure Statements. The PTO is not waiving the
requirement that applicants provide copies of all foreign
patent documents and non-patent literature references.
This waiver applies to all
applications filed after June 30, 2003. Accordingly,
Information Disclosure Statements submitted in any application
filed prior to June 30, 2003 must still be accompanied by
copies of each cited U.S. patent and/or U.S. patent
application publication, in addition to copies of all foreign
patent documents and non-patent literature references. |
