View Rule

The USPTO proposes to amend the Rules of Practice in Patent Cases to permit a higher capacity physical media to be submitted to the office for an electronic version of a Sequence Listing, a Computer Readable Form (CRF) of a Sequence Listing, Large Tables, and a Computer Program Listing Appendix when submission of files in American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) format for patent applications cannot be accommodated by the USPTO patent electronic filing system (EFS-Web or Patent Center). With respect to a Sequence Listing, the requirement to comply with submitting a CRF of a Sequence Listing when the Sequence Listing itself is in ASCII text and submitted via the USPTO patent electronic filing system or on read-only optical discs would be eliminated. The proposed changes also include providing higher capacity physical media options, improving the security and utility of submissions on physical media, eliminating obsolete computer and operating system formats, updating amendment provisions for a Sequence Listing, a CRF of a Sequence Listing, Large Tables, and a Computer Program Listing Appendix, and discontinuing CRF transfers.