Notice of Change in Publishing of
Patents and Patent Application
Publications with Sequence Listings
Applications containing long nucleotide and/or amino acid
sequences or large numbers of such sequences are very difficult for the
United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to publish as part of
patents and patent application publications. Accordingly, this notice
addresses certain changes to the USPTO's printing policies that have
been made in order to resolve those difficulties.
Due to the high cost and limited usefulness of the printed
paper or composed electronic image versions of nucleotide and/or amino
acid sequences, if the "Sequence Listing" portion is lengthy (i.e.,
at least 600 Kb (about 300 typed pages)), it will no longer be printed
with the paper and composed electronic image (page image) versions of
patents and patent application publications and will only be published
in electronic form. The "Sequence Listing" will be published in
electronic form by being available on the USPTO sequence homepage
(http://seqdata.uspto.gov) as an ASCII text file. The
page-image products affected by this change are Patent Images on the
Web (PIW), Application Images on the Web (AIW), all Yellow Book
(magnetic tape) products, USAPat (DVD-ROM), USAApp (DVD-ROM), and
monthly subclass subscriptions (paper).
If the "Sequence Listing" is not included in the page
images of a patent or patent application publication, a standardized
statement will appear. Additionally, in the electronic text version of
the patent or patent application publication, the statement will
include an active hyperlink to a web page containing the "Sequence
Listing." The standardized statement for a patent will read, for
example:
SEQUENCE LISTING
The patent contains a lengthy "Sequence Listing" section. A copy of the
"Sequence Listing" is available inelectronic form from the USPTO web site
(http://seqdata.uspto.gov/sequence.html?DocID=6183957B1). An electronic
copy of the "Sequence Listing" will also be available from the
USPTO upon request and payment of the fee set forth in 37 CFR
1.19(b)(3).
The standardized statement for a patent application publication
will read, for example:
SEQUENCE LISTING
The patent application contains a lengthy "Sequence
Listing" section. A copy of the "Sequence Listing" is available
in electronic form from the USPTO web site
(http://seqdata.uspto.gov/sequence.html?DocID=20010000241). An
electronic copy of the "Sequence Listing" will also be available
from the USPTO upon request and payment of the fee set forth in 37 CFR
1.19(b)(3).
The web site http://seqdata.uspto.gov includes the
sequences from several patents and one publication for test purposes,
but the patents and the publication do not include the paragraph above
because they were printed before the effective date of this change in
procedure.
Patent and patent application publications available through
subscription (delivered via FTP or on DLT) will continue to include the
"Sequence Listing," although lengthy "Sequence Listings" may
not be in the same file as the patent or patent application
publication.
Call (703) 306-2600 for further information about the
availability of patent information through subscriptions. Weekly issue
patent front-page data available for download at
http://www.uspto.gov/web/menu/patdata.html does not
currently include "Sequence Listings" and will continue to not
include "Sequence Listings."
Sequence data may also be accessed in a more readily searchable
manner from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov or from a commercial vendor.
The USPTO forwards a copy of the sequence data to NCBI when a patent
including a "Sequence Listing" is granted, and when an application
containing a sequence is published pursuant to 35 U.S.C. 122(b). If
NCBI elects to include the sequence data in one of its databases, NCBI
indexes the sequence data according to patent or patent application
publication number. There is currently no fee for the public to use the
NCBI site.
Neither the paper copies of patents and patent application
publications that are in the search rooms nor those sold through the
Office of Public Records, Document Services Division, will include a
sequence listing if the sequence listing is not included in the
composed electronic image (Patent Image or Yellow Book) version of the
patent or patent application publication. The public can obtain an
electronic copy of the "Sequence Listing" through the Document
Services Division for a separate fee as set forth in 37 CFR 1.19(b)(3).
The patent mailed to applicant will include a copy of the patent on
paper and a copy of the sequence listing on an electronic medium (e.g.,
compact disc), if the "Sequence Listing" is not printed in the
patent.
Any advance copy of such a patent and any copy used as a
reference in an Office action will include only the paper portion of
the document. If an applicant requires an electronic copy of a
"Sequence Listing" that was not printed in the document, applicant
must specifically request and pay for the electronic copy. Document
Services Division may be accessed through
https://www3.uspto.gov/oems25p/, by telephone at (703)
308-9726 or (800) 972-6382, or by facsimile at (703) 308-7048.
Questions regarding this change in practice should be directed
to Karin Tyson, Senior Legal Advisor, Office of Patent Legal
Administration, Office of the Deputy Commissioner for Patent
Examination Policy, by facsimile at (703) 872-9411, by telephone at
(703) 306-3159, or by e-mail at karin.tyson@uspto.gov.
August 17, 2001 NICHOLAS P. GODICI
Acting Under Secretary of
Commerce for Intellectual Property and
Acting Director of the
United States Patent and Trademark Office