Source: https://bitlaw.com/source/mpep/608_01.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 04:18:47+00:00

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35 U.S.C. 22 Printing of papers filed.
The Director may require papers filed in the Patent and Trademark Office to be printed, typewritten, or on an electronic medium.
37 C.F.R. 1.71 Detailed description and specification of the invention.
(a) The specification must include a written description of the invention or discovery and of the manner and process of making and using the same, and is required to be in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art or science to which the invention or discovery appertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same.
(b) The specification must set forth the precise invention for which a patent is solicited, in such manner as to distinguish it from other inventions and from what is old. It must describe completely a specific embodiment of the process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter or improvement invented, and must explain the mode of operation or principle whenever applicable. The best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention must be set forth.
(c) In the case of an improvement, the specification must particularly point out the part or parts of the process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter to which the improvement relates, and the description should be confined to the specific improvement and to such parts as necessarily cooperate with it or as may be necessary to a complete understanding or description of it.
(d) A copyright or mask work notice may be placed in a design or utility patent application adjacent to copyright and mask work material contained therein. The notice may appear at any appropriate portion of the patent application disclosure. For notices in drawings, see § 1.84(s). The content of the notice must be limited to only those elements provided for by law. For example, "©1983 John Doe"(17 U.S.C. 401) and "*M* John Doe" (17 U.S.C. 909) would be properly limited and, under current statutes, legally sufficient notices of copyright and mask work, respectively. Inclusion of a copyright or mask work notice will be permitted only if the authorization language set forth in paragraph (e) of this section is included at the beginning (preferably as the first paragraph) of the specification.
(f) The specification must commence on a separate sheet. Each sheet including part of the specification may not include other parts of the application or other information. The claim(s), abstract and sequence listing (if any) should not be included on a sheet including any other part of the application.
(1) The specification may disclose or be amended to disclose the names of the parties to a joint research agreement as defined in § 1.9(e).
(iv) Before the mailing of a first Office action after the filing of a request for continued examination under § 1.114.
(3) If an amendment under paragraph (g)(1) of this section is filed after the date the issue fee is paid, the patent as issued may not necessarily include the names of the parties to the joint research agreement. If the patent as issued does not include the names of the parties to the joint research agreement, the patent must be corrected to include the names of the parties to the joint research agreement by a certificate of correction under 35 U.S.C. 255 and § 1.323 for the amendment to be effective.
The specification is a written description of the invention and of the manner and process of making and using the same. The specification must be in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art or science to which the invention pertains to make and use the same. See 35 U.S.C. 112 and 37 CFR 1.71. If a newly filed application obviously fails to disclose an invention with the clarity required by 35 U.S.C. 112, revision of the application should be required. See MPEP § 702.01. The written description must not include information that is not related to applicant’s invention, e.g., prospective disclaimers regarding comments made by examiners. If such information is included in the written description, the examiner will object to the specification and require applicant to take appropriate action, e.g., cancel the information. The specification must commence on a separate sheet. Each sheet including part of the specification may not include other parts of the application or other information. The claim(s), abstract and sequence listing (if any) should not be included on a sheet including any other part of the application (37 CFR 1.71(f) ). That is, the claim(s), abstract and sequence listings (if any) should each begin on a new page since each of these sections (specification, abstract, claims, sequence listings) of the disclosure are separately indexed in the Image File Wrapper (IFW). There should be no overlap on a single page of more than one section of the disclosure.
The specification does not require a date.
Certain cross references to other related applications may be made. References to foreign applications or to applications identified only by the attorney’s docket number should be required to be canceled. U.S. applications identified only by the attorney’s docket number may be amended to properly identify the earlier application(s). See 37 CFR 1.78.
As the specification is never returned to applicant under any circumstances, the applicant should retain an accurate copy thereof. In amending the specification, the attorney or the applicant must comply with 37 CFR 1.121 (see MPEP § 714).
Examiners should not object to the specification and/or claims in patent applications merely because applicants are using British English spellings (e.g., colour) rather than American English spellings. It is not necessary to replace the British English spellings with the equivalent American English spellings in the U.S. patent applications. Note that 37 CFR 1.52(b)(1)(ii) only requires the application to be in the English language. There is no additional requirement that the English must be American English.
Form paragraph 7.29 may be used where the disclosure contains minor informalities.
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities: . Appropriate correction is required.
Use this paragraph to point out minor informalities such as spelling errors, inconsistent terminology (see the requirement of 37 CFR 1.71(a) for "full, clear, concise, and exact terms"), numbering of elements (see 37 CFR 1.74 ), etc., which should be corrected. See form paragraphs 6.28 to 6.31 for specific informalities.
Form paragraphs 6.29-6.31 should be used where appropriate.
The spacing of the lines of the specification is such as to make reading difficult. New application papers with lines 1 1/2 or double spaced (see 37 CFR 1.52(b)(2) ) on good quality paper are required.
35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA), first paragraph, requires the specification to be written in "full, clear, concise, and exact terms." The specification is replete with terms which are not clear, concise and exact. The specification should be revised carefully in order to comply with 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA). Examples of some unclear, inexact or verbose terms used in the specification are: .
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
(b) The application (specification, including the claims, drawings, and the inventor’s oath or declaration) or reexamination or supplemental examination proceeding, any amendments to the application or reexamination proceeding, or any corrections to the application, or reexamination or supplemental examination proceeding.
(5) Other than in a reissue application or reexamination or supplemental examination proceeding, the pages of the specification including claims and abstract must be numbered consecutively, starting with 1, the numbers being centrally located above or preferably below, the text.
(6) Other than in a reissue application or reexamination or supplemental examination proceeding, the paragraphs of the specification, other than in the claims or abstract, may be numbered at the time the application is filed, and should be individually and consecutively numbered using Arabic numerals, so as to unambiguously identify each paragraph. The number should consist of at least four numerals enclosed in square brackets, including leading zeros (e.g., ). The numbers and enclosing brackets should appear to the right of the left margin as the first item in each paragraph, before the first word of the paragraph, and should be highlighted in bold. A gap, equivalent to approximately four spaces, should follow the number. Nontext elements (e.g., tables, mathematical or chemical formulae, chemical structures, and sequence data) are considered part of the numbered paragraph around or above the elements, and should not be independently numbered. If a nontext element extends to the left margin, it should not be numbered as a separate and independent paragraph. A list is also treated as part of the paragraph around or above the list, and should not be independently numbered. Paragraph or section headers (titles), whether abutting the left margin or centered on the page, are not considered paragraphs and should not be numbered.
(c) Interlineation, erasure, cancellation, or other alteration of the application papers may be made before or after the signing of the inventor's oath or declaration referring to those application papers, provided that the statements in the inventor's oath or declaration pursuant to § 1.63 remain applicable to those application papers. A substitute specification (§ 1.125 ) may be required if the application papers do not comply with paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section.
(d) A nonprovisional or provisional application under 35 U.S.C. 111 may be in a language other than English.
(1) Nonprovisional application. If a nonprovisional application under 35 U.S.C. 111(a) is filed in a language other than English, an English language translation of the non-English language application, a statement that the translation is accurate, and the processing fee set forth in § 1.17(i) are required. If these items are not filed with the application, applicant will be notified and given a period of time within which they must be filed in order to avoid abandonment.
(2) Provisional application. If a provisional application under 35 U.S.C. 111(b) is filed in a language other than English, an English language translation of the non-English language provisional application will not be required in the provisional application. See § 1.78(a) for the requirements for claiming the benefit of such provisional application in a nonprovisional application.
(e) Electronic documents that are to become part of the permanent United States Patent and Trademark Office records in the file of a patent application, or reexamination or supplemental examination proceeding.
(iii) Any individual table (see § 1.58 ) if the table is more than 50 pages in length, or if the total number of pages of all the tables in an application exceeds 100 pages in length, where a table page is a page printed on paper in conformance with paragraph (b) of this section and § 1.58(c).
(ii) Each compact disc must be enclosed in a hard compact disc case within an unsealed padded and protective mailing envelope and accompanied by a transmittal letter on paper in accordance with paragraph (a) of this section. The transmittal letter must list for each compact disc the machine format ( e.g., IBM-PC, Macintosh), the operating system compatibility ( e.g., MS-DOS, MS-Windows, Macintosh, Unix), a list of files contained on the compact disc including their names, sizes in bytes, and dates of creation, plus any other special information that is necessary to identify, maintain, and interpret ( e.g., tables in landscape orientation should be identified as landscape orientation or be identified when inquired about) the information on the compact disc. Compact discs submitted to the Office will not be returned to the applicant.
(2) Except as otherwise provided in this paragraph, the paper size equivalent of the specification and drawings of an application submitted via the Office electronic filing system will be considered to be seventy-five percent of the number of sheets of paper present in the specification and drawings of the application when entered into the Office file wrapper after being rendered by the Office electronic filing system for purposes of determining the application size fee required by § 1.16(s). Any sequence listing in compliance with § 1.821(c) or (e), and any computer program listing in compliance with § 1.96, submitted via the Office electronic filing system will be excluded when determining the application size fee required by § 1.16(s) if the listing is submitted in ASCII text as part of an associated file.
(a) The specification, including the claims, may contain chemical and mathematical formulae, but shall not contain drawings or flow diagrams. The description portion of the specification may contain tables, but the same tables should not be included in both the drawings and description portion of the specification. Claims may contain tables either if necessary to conform to 35 U.S.C. 112 or if otherwise found to be desirable.
(b) Tables that are submitted in electronic form (§§ 1.96(c) and1.821(c) ) must maintain the spatial relationships (e.g., alignment of columns and rows) of the table elements when displayed so as to visually preserve the relational information they convey. Chemical and mathematical formulae must be encoded to maintain the proper positioning of their characters when displayed in order to preserve their intended meaning.
(c) Chemical and mathematical formulae and tables must be presented in compliance with § 1.52(a) and (b), except that chemical and mathematical formulae or tables may be placed in a landscape orientation if they cannot be presented satisfactorily in a portrait orientation. Typewritten characters used in such formulae and tables must be chosen from a block (nonscript) type font or lettering style having capital letters which should be at least 0.422 cm. (0.166 inch) high (e.g., preferably Arial, Times Roman, or Courier with a font size of 12), but may be no smaller than 0.21 cm. (0.08 inch) high (e.g., a font size of 6). A space at least 0.64 cm. (1/4 inch) high should be provided between complex formulae and tables and the text. Tables should have the lines and columns of data closely spaced to conserve space, consistent with a high degree of legibility.
The pages of the specification including claims and abstract must be numbered consecutively, starting with 1, the numbers being centrally located above or preferably, below, the text. The lines of the specification, and any amendments to the specification, must be 1 1/2 or double spaced. The text must be written in a nonscript type font (e.g., Arial, Times Roman, or Courier, preferably a font size of 12) lettering style having capital letters which should be at least 0.3175 cm. (0.125 inch) high, but may be no smaller than 0.21 cm. (0.08 inch) high (e.g., a font size of 6) (37 CFR1.52(b)(2)(ii) ). The text may not be written solely in capital letters.
All application papers (specification, including claims, abstract, any drawings, oath or declaration, and other papers), and also papers subsequently filed, must have each page plainly written on only one side of a sheet of paper. The specification must commence on a separate sheet. Each sheet including part of the specification may not include other parts of the application or other information. The claim(s), abstract and sequence listing (if any) should not be included on a sheet including any other part of the application (37 CFR 1.71(f) ). The claim or claims must commence on a separate sheet or electronic page and any sheet including a claim or portion of a claim may not contain any other parts of the application or other material (37 CFR 1.75(h) ). The abstract must commence on a separate sheet and any sheet including an abstract or portion of an abstract may not contain any other parts of the application or other material (37 CFR 1.72(b) ).
All application papers that are submitted on paper or by facsimile transmission which are to become a part of the permanent record of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office must be on sheets of paper which are the same size (for example, an amendment should not have two different sizes of paper, but the specification can have one size of paper and the drawings a different size) and are either 21.0 cm. by 29.7 cm. (DIN size A4) or 21.6 cm. by 27.9 cm. (8 1/2 by 11 inches). See 37 CFR 1.52(a)(1) and 37 CFR 1.84(f). Each sheet, other than the drawings, must include a top margin of at least 2.0 cm. (3/4 inch), a left side margin of at least 2.5 cm. (1 inch), a right side margin of at least 2.0 cm. (3/4 inch), and a bottom margin of at least 2.0 cm. (3/4 inch). No holes should be made in the sheets as submitted.
Application papers that are submitted electronically to the Office must be formatted and transmitted in compliance with the Office’s electronic filing system requirements. See 37 CFR 1.52(a)(5). See also MPEP § 502.05 and the EFS-Web Legal Framework (www.uspto.gov/patents-application-process/ applying-online/legal-framework-efs-web-06april11 ) for details regarding correspondence transmitted to the Office using EFS-Web, the Office’s system for the electronic filing of patent correspondence.
Applicants must make every effort to file patent applications, and papers that are to become a part of the permanent United States Patent and Trademark Office records in the file of a patent application or a reexamination proceeding, in a form that is clear and reproducible. If the papers are not of the required quality, substitute papers of suitable quality will be required. See 37 CFR 1.125 for filing rewritten papers constituting a substitute specification required by the Office. See also MPEP § 608.01(q). All papers which are to become a part of the permanent records of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office must be legibly written either by a typewriter or mechanical printer in permanent dark ink or its equivalent in portrait orientation on flexible, strong, smooth, nonshiny, durable, and white paper. Typed, mimeographed, xeroprinted, multigraphed or nonsmearing carbon copy forms of reproduction are acceptable. So-called "Easily Erasable" paper having a special coating so that erasures can be made more easily may not provide a "permanent" copy, 37 CFR 1.52(a)(1)(iv). Since application papers are now maintained in an Image File Wrapper, the type of paper is unlikely to be an issue so long as the Office is able to scan and reproduce the papers that were filed.
Where an application is filed with papers that do not comply with 37 CFR 1.52, the Office of Patent Application Processing will mail a "Notice to File Corrected Application Papers" indicating the deficiency and setting a time period within which the applicant must correct the deficiencies to avoid abandonment. The failure to submit application papers in compliance with 37 CFR 1.52 does not affect the grant of a filing date, and original application papers that do not comply with 37 CFR 1.52 will be retained in the application file as the original disclosure of the invention. The USPTO will not return papers simply because they do not comply with 37 CFR 1.52.
Legibility includes ability to be photocopied and scanned so that suitable reprints can be made and paper can be electronically reproduced by use of digital imaging and optical character recognition. This requires a high contrast, with black lines and a white background. Gray lines and/or a gray background sharply reduce photo reproduction quality.
Some of the patent application papers received by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are copies of the original, ribbon copy. These are acceptable if, in the opinion of the Office, they are legible and permanent.
The specification (including the abstract and claims), and any amendments for applications, except as provided for in 37 CFR 1.821 through 1.825, must have text written plainly and legibly either by a typewriter or machine printer in a nonscript type font (e.g., Arial, Times Roman, or Courier, preferably a font size of 12) lettering style having capital letters which should be at least 0.3175 cm. (0.125 inch) high, but may be no smaller than 0.21 cm. (0.08 inch) high (e.g., a font size of 6) in portrait orientation and presented in a form having sufficient clarity and contrast between the paper and the writing thereon to permit the direct reproduction of readily legible copies in any number by use of photographic, electrostatic, photo-offset, and microfilming processes and electronic capture by use of digital imaging and optical character recognition; and only a single column of text. See 37 CFR 1.52(a) and (b).
The application papers are objected to because .
A legible substitute specification in compliance with 37 CFR 1.52(a) and (b) and 1.125 is required.
1. In bracket 1, identify the part of the specification that is illegible: all of the specification; or certain pages of the specification.
2. Do not use this form paragraph for reissue applications or reexamination proceedings.
Effective September 16, 2012, 37 CFR 1.52(c) no longer prohibits interlineations and other alterations of the application papers from being made after the signing of the inventor’s oath or declaration. It should be noted that if such interlineations or other alterations are made after the signing of the inventor’s oath or declaration, then the statements in the inventor’s oath or declaration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.63 must remain applicable to the application papers. Otherwise, the inventor may need to execute a new inventor’s oath or declaration. See also MPEP § 602.08(b).
If an application-as-filed does not meet the sheet size/margin and quality requirements of 37 CFR 1.52 and 1.84(f) and (g), certified copies of such application may be illegible and/or ineffective as priority documents. When an applicant requests that the USPTO provide a certified copy of an application-as-filed and pays the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.19(b)(1), the USPTO will make a copy of the application-as-filed from the records in the IFW database (or the microfilm database). If papers submitted in the application-as-filed are not legible, certified copies of the application as originally filed will not be legible.
The USPTO performs exception processing when scanning application papers that do not comply with the sheet size/margin and quality requirements. If papers submitted in the application-as-filed (including any transmittal letter or cover sheet) do not meet the sheet size requirement of 37 CFR 1.52 and 1.84(f) (e.g., the papers are legal size (8 1/2 by 14 inches)), the USPTO must reduce such papers to be able to image-scan the entire application and record it in the IFW database. In addition, if papers submitted in the application-as-filed do not meet the quality requirements of 37 CFR 1.52 (e.g., the papers are shiny or non-white), the USPTO will attempt to enhance such papers before scanning to make the resulting electronic record in the IFW database more readable. However, if exception processing is required to make the IFW copy, certified copies of the application as originally filed may not be legible.
If application papers are filed that do not meet sheet size/margin and quality requirements, the USPTO will require the applicant to file substitute papers that do comply with the requirements of 37 CFR 1.52 and 1.84(e), (f) and (g). The substitute papers submitted in reply to the above-mentioned requirement will provide the USPTO with an image- and OCR-scannable copy of the application for printing the application as a patent publication or patent. However, the USPTO will not treat application papers submitted after the filing date of an application as the original disclosure of the application for making a certified copy of the application-as-filed or any other purpose. That is, even if an applicant subsequently files substitute application papers that comply with 37 CFR 1.52 and then requests that the USPTO provide a certified copy of an application-as-filed, paying the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.19(b)(1), the USPTO will still make a copy of the application-as-filed rather than a copy of the subsequently filed substitute papers.
In order to minimize the necessity in the future for converting dimensions given in the English system of measurements to the metric system of measurements when using printed patents as research and prior art search documents, all patent applicants should use the metric (S.I.) units followed by the equivalent English units when describing their inventions in the specifications of patent applications.
The initials S.I. stand for "Le Système International d’ Unités," the French name for the International System of Units, a modernized metric system adopted in 1960 by the International General Conference of Weights and Measures based on precise unit measurements made possible by modern technology.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will accord a filing date to an application meeting the requirements of 35 U.S.C. 111(a), or a provisional application in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 111(b), even though some or all of the application papers, including the written description and any claims, is in a language other than English and hence does not comply with 37 CFR 1.52.
As provided in 35 U.S.C. 111(c), a nonprovisional application filed under 35 U.S.C. 111(a) on or after December 18, 2013, may be filed by a reference to a previously filed application (foreign, international, provisional, or nonprovisional) indicating that the specification and any drawings of the application are replaced by the reference to the previously filed application. See MPEP § 601.01(a), subsection III, for more information on the filing and treatment of such applications.
If a nonprovisional application under 35 U.S.C. 111(a) is filed in a language other than English, an English translation of the non-English language papers, a statement that the translation is accurate, the fees set forth in 37 CFR 1.16, the oath or declaration and fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(i) should either accompany the nonprovisional application papers or be filed in the Office within the time set by the Office. If a provisional application is filed in a language other than English, an English translation of the non-English language provisional application and a statement that the translation is accurate must be submitted if benefit of the provisional application is claimed in a later-filed nonprovisional application (see 37 CFR 1.78(a)(5) ). If the translation and statement were not previously filed in the provisional application, applicant will be notified in the nonprovisional application that claims the benefit of the provisional application and be given a period of time within which to file the translation and statement in the provisional application. Applicants may file the translation and statement in the provisional application even if the provisional application has become abandoned. A timely reply to such notice must include the filing in the nonprovisional application of either a confirmation that the translation and statement were filed in the provisional application or withdrawal of the benefit claim. For applications filed before September 16, 2012, an amendment or Supplemental Application Data Sheet withdrawing the benefit claim may be filed. For applications filed on or after September 16, 2012, a corrected application data sheet withdrawing the benefit claim may be filed. Failure to take one of the above actions will result in the abandonment of the nonprovisional application.
A subsequently filed English translation must contain the complete identifying data for the application in order to permit prompt association with the papers initially filed. Accordingly, it is strongly recommended that the original application papers be filed via EFS-Web or be accompanied by a cover letter and a self-addressed return postcard, each containing the following identifying data in English: (a) applicant’s name(s); (b) title of invention; (c) number of pages of specification, claims, and sheets of drawings; (d) whether an oath or declaration was filed and (e) amount and manner of paying the fees set forth in 37 CFR 1.16.
The translation must be a literal translation and must be accompanied by a statement that the translation is accurate. The translation must also be accompanied by a signed request from the applicant, his or her attorney or agent, asking that the English translation be used as the copy for examination purposes in the Office. If the English translation does not conform to idiomatic English and United States practice, it should be accompanied by a preliminary amendment making the necessary changes without the introduction of new matter prohibited by 35 U.S.C. 132. If such an application is published as a patent application publication, the document that is published is the translation. See 37 CFR 1.215(a) and MPEP § 1121 regarding the content of the application publication. In the event that the English translation and the statement are not timely filed in the nonprovisional application, the nonprovisional application will be regarded as abandoned.
It should be recognized that this practice is intended for emergency situations to prevent loss of valuable rights and should not be routinely used for filing applications. There are at least two reasons why this should not be used on a routine basis. First, there are obvious dangers to applicant and the public if he or she fails to obtain a correct literal translation. Second, the filing of a large number of applications under the procedure will create significant administrative burdens on the Office. See also MPEP § 601.01(a), subsection III, for information on reference filing, which is also a practice intended for emergency situations to prevent the loss of rights and should not be routinely used for filing applications.
Graphical illustrations, diagrammatic views, flowcharts, and diagrams in the descriptive portion of the specification do not come within the purview of 37 CFR 1.58(a), which permits tables, chemical and mathematical formulas in the specification in lieu of drawings. The examiner should object to such descriptive illustrations in the specification and request drawings in accordance with 37 CFR 1.81 when an application contains graphs, drawings, or flow charts in the specification.
The specification, including any claims, may contain chemical formulas and mathematical equations, but the written description portion of the specification must not contain drawings or flow diagrams. A claim may incorporate by reference to a specific figure or table where there is no practical way to define the invention in words. See MPEP § 2173.05(s). The description portion of the specification may contain tables, but the same tables should not be included in both the drawings as a figure and in the description portion of the specification. Claims may contain tables either if necessary to conform to 35 U.S.C. 112 or if otherwise found to be desirable. See MPEP § 2173.05(s). When such a patent is printed, however, the table will not be included as part of the claim, and instead the claim will contain a reference to the table number.
Examiners must review patent applications to make certain that hyperlinks and other forms of browser-executable code, especially commercial site URLs, are not included in a patent application. 37 CFR 1.57(e) states that an incorporation by reference by hyperlink or other form of browser executable code is not permitted. Examples of a hyperlink or a browser-executable code are a URL placed between these symbols "< >" and http:// followed by a URL address. When a patent application with embedded hyperlinks and/or other forms of browser-executable code issues as a patent (or is published as a patent application publication) and the patent document is placed on the USPTO Web page, when the patent document is retrieved and viewed via a Web browser, the URL is interpreted as a valid HTML code and it becomes a live web link. When a user clicks on the link with a mouse, the user will be transferred to another Web page identified by the URL, if it exists, which could be a commercial website. USPTO policy does not permit the USPTO to link to any commercial sites since the USPTO exercises no control over the organization, views or accuracy of the information contained on these outside sites.
If hyperlinks and/or other forms of browser-executable code are embedded in the text of the patent application, examiners should object to the specification and indicate to applicants that the embedded hyperlinks and/or other forms of browser-executable code are impermissible and that references to websites should be limited to the top-level domain name without any prefix such as http:// or other browser-executable code. This requirement does not apply to electronic documents listed on forms PTO-892 and PTO/SB/08 where the electronic document is identified by reference to a URL.
The attempt to incorporate subject matter into the patent application by reference to a hyperlink and/or other forms of browser-executable code is considered to be an improper incorporation by reference. See 37 CFR 1.57(e) and MPEP § 608.01(p), paragraph I regarding incorporation by reference. Where the hyperlinks and/or other forms of browser-executable codes themselves rather than the contents of the site to which the hyperlinks are directed are part of applicant’s invention and it is necessary to have them included in the patent application in order to comply with the requirements of 35 U.S.C. 112(a), and applicant does not intend to have these hyperlinks be active links, examiners should not object to these hyperlinks. The Office will disable these hyperlinks when preparing the text to be loaded onto the USPTO Web database.
Note that nucleotide and/or amino acid sequence data placed between the symbols "< >" are not considered to be hyperlinks and/or browser-executable code and therefore should not be objected to as being an improper incorporation by reference (see 37 CFR 1.821 –1.825 ).
The disclosure is objected to because it contains an embedded hyperlink and/or other form of browser-executable code. Applicant is required to delete the embedded hyperlink and/or other form of browser-executable code; references to websites should be limited to the top-level domain name without any prefix such as http:// or other browser-executable code. See MPEP § 608.01.
1. Examples of a hyperlink or a browser-executable code are a URL placed between these symbols "< >" and "http://" followed by a URL address. Nucleotide and/or amino acid sequence data placed between the symbols "< >" are not considered to be hyperlinks and/or browser-executable code.
2. If the application attempts to incorporate essential or nonessential subject matter into the patent application by reference to the contents of the site to which a hyperlink and/or other form of browser-executable code is directed, use form paragraph 6.19 or 6.19.01 instead. See also MPEP § 608.01(p).
3. The requirement to delete an embedded hyperlink or other form of browser-executable code does not apply to electronic documents listed on forms PTO-892 and PTO/SB/08B where the electronic document is identified by reference to a URL.
4. Examiners should not object to hyperlinks where the hyperlinks and/or browser-executable codes themselves (rather than the contents of the site to which the hyperlinks are directed) are necessary to be included in the patent application in order to meet the requirements of 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, first paragraph, and applicant does not intend to have those hyperlinks be active links.

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