By Donald Zuhn --
Last fall, we reported on a memorandum of understanding that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), European Patent Office (EPO), and Japan Patent Office (JPO) had reached during the 25th Annual Trilateral Conference. One aspect of this agreement concerned a Common Application Format (CAF), which would allow applicants to prepare a single application that would be accepted by each Office.
At the time of the Conference, the CAF had not yet been disclosed. The USPTO has now released additional information concerning the CAF. With respect to the format itself, the USPTO provided an example of a format that complies with the CAF requirements:
Description
Title of Invention
Technical Field
0001
Background Art
0002
Summary of Invention
Technical Problem
0003
Solution to Problem
0004
0005
Advantageous Effects of Invention
0006
Brief Description of Drawings
0007
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Description of Embodiments
0008
Examples
0009
0010
Example 1
0011
Example 2
0012
Industrial Applicability
0013
Reference Signs List
0014
Reference to Deposited Biological Material
0015
Sequence Listing Free Text
0016
Citation List
Patent Literature
0017
Non Patent Literature
0018
Claims
Claim 1
Claim 2
Abstract
Drawings
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Sequence Listing
The USPTO noted that while some of the requirements of the CAF go beyond current Patent Office rules and procedures, the new format was nevertheless consistent with such rules and procedures. Therefore, the Office announced that it would accept applications that used the new format. The USPTO also announced that the EPO would be implementing the CAF in early 2009, and that the JPO would be implementing most of the CAF requirements in early 2009 with the remainder of the requirements to be implemented in 2011.
The Patent Office announcement also contains links to information regarding the basic principles of the CAF, common requirements for documents under the CAF, and a comparative table of examples for applications. With respect to the common requirements, some aspects of the CAF include the following:
• Applicants will not be required to remove National Legends (i.e., cross references to related applications and statements regarding federal funding) from the description.
• A statement of industrial applicability shall be included when it is not obvious from the description or nature of the invention.
• Applicants will not be required to remove any reference citation list from the description.
• Applicants shall use the International System of Units (SI) in the description, but may use additional alternative unit systems as long as SI units are placed in parentheses.
• Paragraphs of the description (but not the title or section headings) shall be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals.
• Mathematical or chemical formulae shall be preceded by a sign indicating that the formula is mathematical ("Math.") or chemical ("Chem."), followed by a space, and then by an Arabic numeral (e.g., Chem. 1)
• Tables shall be preceded by a sign indicating that the table is a table ("Table"), followed by a space, and then by an Arabic numeral (e.g., Table 1)
• Claims shall be preceded by a sign indicating that the claim is a claim ("Claim"), followed by a space, and then by an Arabic numeral (e.g., Claim 1).
Where is the PTO announcement?
Posted by: Derek | April 29, 2008 at 10:52 AM
Derek:
Thanks for pointing out the absence of a link to the USPTO's announcement. The link has now been added.
Don
Posted by: Donald Zuhn | April 29, 2008 at 10:59 AM
In the name of God
I am IT student in Tabriz and I have 2 project(Once:formul discovery for oval and hyperbolic Second:desin one method for coding and decoding for texts).
please send me role of patent in the world
sencerly yours:Amir Ali
Posted by: amir ali | June 20, 2008 at 08:58 AM