Practice Tip — Information Disclosure Statements

Filing an information disclosure statement to the PTO is now quite easy.  If you are only submitting U.S. patent documents (including published and unpublished patent applications), then the only items to submit are (i) completed form PTO-1449a; (ii) transmittal; and (iii) a return receipt post-card.  Form 1449a serves as the Information Disclosure Statement, as such, there is no need to submit a separate ‘statement’ listing or describing the references.  Likewise, under the PTO’s new rules, there is no need to submit copies of any of the U.S. patent documents (except for unpublished patent applications in certain cases).  This is a nice practice change that saves paper as well as the clients’ money.

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