2435 Publishing of Patents and Patent Application Publications with a Lengthy “Sequence Listing” [R-07.2022]
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. The “Sequence Listing” will only be published in electronic form and will be available on the USPTO sequence homepage (https://seqdata.uspto.gov) as an ASCII plain text file.
Copies of patents and patent application publications that include sequence listings are available for sale through the Patent and Trademark Copy Fulfillment Branch’s Certified Copy Center storefront at https://certifiedcopycenter.uspto.gov/. However, these copies will not include a “Sequence Listing” if the “Sequence Listing” is not included in the composed electronic image (page image) version of the patent or patent application publication.
Copies of U.S. patents and U.S. patent application publications are not provided in paper to applicants and are not placed in the application file. See MPEP § 707.05(a). If an applicant desires an electronic copy of a “Sequence Listing”, applicant may either download the “Sequence Listing” from the USPTO sequence homepage (https://seqdata.uspto.gov/) or specifically request and pay for the electronic copy through the Patent and Trademark Copy Fulfillment Branch of the Public Records Division. Both applicants and members of the general public can obtain an electronic copy of the “Sequence Listing” through the Patent and Trademark Copy Fulfillment Branch for a separate fee as set forth in 37 CFR 1.19(b)(3). See MPEP § 1730 for contact information for the Patent and Trademark Copy Fulfillment Branch.
If the patent is mailed to applicant, the Office will include a copy of the patent on paper and a copy of the “Sequence Listing” on an electronic medium (e.g., read-only optical disc), if the “Sequence Listing” is not printed in the patent.
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:
The patent contains a lengthy “Sequence Listing” section. A copy of the “Sequence Listing” is available in electronic form from the USPTO web site (https://seqdata.uspto.gov). 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:
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 (https://seqdata.uspto.gov). 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).
Sequence data may also be accessed in a more readily searchable manner from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at 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.
