RFI Attachment 4 - Glossary of Terms.pdf

RFI Attachment 4

Glossary of Terms

Application Data Sheet (ADS): The form used by the applicant to submit bibliographic information—inventor information, applicant information, correspondence information, etc.—to the USPTO. Submitting that information on a single document is intended to decrease the likelihood of the Office omitting data, and also to permit applicants to correct bibliographic information in a simpler manner. Under the America Invents Act, in applications filed on or after September 16, 2012, the ADS is the sole location for making a claim for domestic benefit and (for a U.S. application as opposed to the U.S. national stage of an international application) the sole location for making a claim for foreign priority. Beginning December 18, 2013, the ADS is the document on which the applicant can make a “reference filing.”

Bibliographic (bib) data: Descriptive and identifying information about a patent application or issued/published patent document (title, applicants, inventors, application number, filing date, etc.), as opposed to the contents of the patent application or issued/published patent document (specification, claims, drawings). On a pre-grant publication or patent, the bibliographic data is included on the front page.

Content Management System (CMS): System used by USPTO to create, edit, and manage patent application related documents and content.

Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC): A classification system used jointly by the USPTO and the European Patent Office to categorize patents and patent applications according to the technical features of their content. Beginning January 2015, CPC replaced USPC for utility applications/documents. A CPC symbol consists of a section (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, or Y), a class (two digits, 01 through 99), a subclass (A through Z), a space, a main group (up to four numbers, 1 through 9999), a slash, and a subgroup (two to six digits, 00 through 999999). Examples of CPC symbols are H01M 2/1022 and A47L 601/06.

Data Preparation Manual (DPM): The manual for Patent Application (Pre-Grant) Publication that provides instructions for the contractor’s capture of data for pre-grant publications, including descriptions of the electronic data sources and format instructions for the composition of the data.

The manual is updated via Office of Data Management Data Capture Bulletins, which are then incorporated into the annual revision of the manual.

Digital Reports, Enhancements, and Downloads (DREAD) Report: Daily New Document Report of documents (not actual documents) received after Initial Data Capture export. Every morning, this report goes out to vendor containing documents that are ingested by CMS. It is an Excel Spreadsheet listing the document code, application number, and load date into CMS.

File Maintenance (FM): The second of the three stages of patent grant processing, during which the Patent Data Capture contractor ensures that all after-allowance correspondence, fees, and drawings have been processed and all outstanding requirements have been met. Previously referred to as the File Maintenance Facility (FMF).

Final Data Capture (FDC): The third of the three stages of patent grant processing, during which the Patent Data Capture contractor captures whatever information was submitted after allowance, such as after-allowance amendments and corrected drawings, and (taken from the issue fee transmittal) the assignee information and attorney/agent/firm information. Also known as Patent Number Assignment Processing.

Image File Wrapper (IFW): Also known as the Official Electronic File Wrapper. The technology system that stores images of the documents in a patent application file, including the documents submitted by the applicant (specification, oath or declaration, drawings, amendments, information disclosure statements, etc.), and documents generated by the USPTO (notices, Office actions, etc.

Initial Data Capture (IDC): The first of the three stages of patent grant processing, during which the contents that are present in the Official Electronic File Wrapper at the time of allowance— specification, claims, drawings, bibliographic data—are electronically captured by the patent data capture contractor.

Information Disclosure Statement (IDS): A form which contains references cited by the applicant (or, in some instances, by a third party). Applicants may use numbered IDS forms— Form PTO-1449, Form PTO/SB/08A, and Form PTO/SB/08B—as well as “equivalent” information disclosure statements of their own making. When an examiner initials an IDS reference citation or by an annotation states that the reference citation has been considered, the reference citation is printed on the front page of the patent.

International Patent Classification (IPC): A subject-matter classification coding system which arose from the 1971 Strasbourg Agreement Concerning the International Patent Classification and which is administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Effective January 2006, the system was overhauled and is now sometimes referred to as International Patent Classification Reform (IPCR). Whereas IPC was updated every five years, IPCR is updated more frequently.

Notice of Allowance (NOA): This notice informs the applicant that the patent has been allowed and specifies the amount of fees due within three months of the mail date of the notice. This statutory three-month response period cannot be extended.

Patent Application Services and Security (PASS): Provides the USPTO with the capability to screen electronic images of patent applications for content relating to national security and property rights interests.

The PASS system supports two user groups, the Office of Patent Application Processing (OPAP), and the Licensing and Review (L&R) Group. PASS operates across the Patent and Trademark Office Network (PTONet) and is comprised of four subsystems:

Backend Work Flow Subsystem (OCR, ASR, & Translation): Images and metadata are picked up by this component of the PASS system from the EAI Hub message queue. This component is responsible for image OCR, running Automated Security review (ASR) on the OCR results, and translation of any foreign language patent applications.

PASSWeb Subsystem: This subsystem provides Web-based graphical user interfaces (GUIs) to allow examiners to screen applications with regard to security review requirements.

http://ptoweb.uspto.gov/patents/opa/ifw.html

Patent Application Images Export Subsystem: This subsystem is used to generate weekly PGPub, EDC and daily GRANT files that are electronically transferred for delivery to USPTO data contractors.

DTSA CDR Subsystem: This subsystem allows the burning of CDs with applications that have been referred to external agencies for further Security Review. The format of the applications can be TIFF, PDF, or both.

Patent Application Vendor Export Services (PAVES): Patent Application documents exported to vendors for publication and classification.

Patent and Trademark Office (PTO)-1449: List of References cited by the applicant and considered by the examiner.

Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB): As of September 16, 2012, and as a consequence of the America Invents Act, the new name for the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences. The PTAB conducts four kinds of proceedings—post-grant, covered business method (a subset of post-grant), inter partes, and derivation. The three kinds of Patent Trial and Appeal Board certificates—post-grant review, inter partes review, and derivation—can issue on any weekday and are reported in the daily electronic Official Gazette for Certificates and also in the next week’s electronic Official Gazette for Patents.

Pre-grant publication (PGPUB): The generic term for any of the following: utility patent application publication (PAP), plant patent application publication (PPAP), early publication, voluntary publication, republication, or corrected publication. Only pending utility and plant applications are subject to pre-grant publication. In general, pre-grant publication applies to utility and plant patent applications filed on or after November 29, 2000. Also referred to as a PG Pub, utility patent application publication, eighteen-month publication, or plant patent application publication.

Sequence Listing Information Control (SLIC): USPTO's processing system component for DNA, RNA & Protein Sequence Listings following ST.23, ST.25 and ST.26 international standards and in accordance with 37 CFR §§ 1.821 – 1.825.

Supervisory Primary Examiner (SPE): The person in charge of an examining group art unit who has primary examiner status.

Tape Archive (TAR) file: An archive file that combines multiple files and directories into a single file, often for the purpose of easier distribution or backup.

Yellow Book (YB): U.S. Patent Images/TIFF (a.k.a. Yellow Book) consists of United States Weekly Issued Patent Grant Documents and weekly Pre-Grant Publications (Application), as well as weekly Certificates of Correction and daily certificates (Reexamination, Supplemental Examination, Patent Trial and Appeal Board) delivered as CCITT Group 4 facsimile images enclosed in TIFF headers. Each page of a patent document is in a single TIFF file.