Work at Open Invention Networkhroy.euhttps://hroy.eu/work/oin/hroy.euikiwiki2014-10-09T13:37:10Zhttps://hroy.eu/work/oin/submit-priorart-howto/EPO/2014-10-09T13:37:10Z2014-10-09T13:14:43Z
<p>The European Patent Convention allows any person to submit prior art at
the European Patent Office. There are two procedures:
<a href="http://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/html/epc/2013/e/ar115.html">one</a>
before the patent is granted (the “observations” procedure), the
<a href="http://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/html/epc/2013/e/apv.html">other</a>
within 9 months after the patent is granted (the “opposition”
procedure).</p>
<p>The official languages of the European Patent Office are English, French
and German. You should provide translations to one of these languages
for documents in other languages.</p>
<h1>0. Which prior art references can you submit?</h1>
<p>Two conditions are absolutely necessary for a document to constitute
prior art:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the document must have been made available to the public</p></li>
<li><p>the publication date is paramount in order for prior art to be
relevant for challenging patent validity, so any document where the
publication date is uncertain is going to have less value.[^1]</p></li>
</ul>
<p>In order to constitute prior art and establish that the patent
application claims something that is <strong>not new</strong>, the publication date
must precede the patent application filing date and its priority date.</p>
<h1>1. The EPO observation procedure</h1>
<p>The observation procedure starts after the publication of the European
patent application (according to article
<a href="http://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/html/epc/2013/e/ar93.html">93</a>)
and ends when such application is granted. The EPO
<a href="http://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/html/guidelines/e/e_v_3.htm">guidelines</a>
specify that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Although lack of novelty and/or inventive step are the most common
observations, third-party observations may also be directed to clarity
(Art. 84), sufficiency of disclosure (Art. 83), patentability (Art.
52(2) and (3), 53 or 57) and unallowable amendments (Art. 76(1),
123(2)).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Third-party observations can be <a href="http://www.epo.org/searching/free/observations.html">submitted online directly to the
EPO</a>.</p>
<h1>2. The EPO opposition procedure</h1>
<p>The opposition procedure is much more complex. A third-party filing a
notice of opposition will become a party to the procedure.</p>
<p>Any person may oppose a patent <strong>within 9 months of the publication of
the mention of the grant</strong> in the European Patent
<a href="http://www.epo.org/searching/free/bulletin.html">Bulletin</a>. The
formalities of the opposition notice are set forth in rule
<a href="http://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/html/epc/2013/e/r76.html">76</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>(a) particulars of the opponent as provided in <a href="http://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/html/epc/2013/e/r41.html">Rule
41</a>,
paragraph 2(c);</p>
<p>(b) the number of the European patent against which opposition is
filed, the name of the proprietor of the patent and the title of
the invention;</p>
<p>(c) a statement of the extent to which the European patent is opposed
and of the grounds on which the opposition is based, as well as an
indication of the facts and evidence presented in support of these
grounds; […]</p>
</blockquote>
<hr />
<p>The procedure is not admitted until the fees are paid:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] Each party to the opposition proceedings shall bear the costs it
has incurred, unless the Opposition Division, for reasons of equity,
orders, in accordance with the Implementing Regulations, a different
apportionment of costs. […] (article
<a href="http://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/html/epc/2013/e/ar104.html">104</a>).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These rules are set forth in rule
<a href="http://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/html/epc/2013/e/r88.html">88</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>(1) The apportionment of costs shall be dealt with in the decision on
the opposition. Such apportionment shall only take into
consideration the expenses necessary to assure proper protection
of the rights involved. The costs shall include the remuneration
of the representatives of the parties.</p>
<p>(2) The Opposition Division shall, on request, fix the amount of costs
to be paid under a final decision apportioning them. A bill of
costs, with supporting evidence, shall be attached to the request.
Costs may be fixed once their credibility is established.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr />
<p>Oppositions may be <a href="http://www.epo.org/applying/european/oppositions.html">submitted
online</a>.</p>
<h1>Find relevant patent and patent applications</h1>
<p>You can <a href="https://register.epo.org/regviewer">search through the EPO’s patent
database</a>. You can also search
through the
<a href="http://worldwide.espacenet.com/classification">classification</a> to find
relevant classes.</p>
<p>[^1]: Where the actual publication date of a document is not known, you
will have to provide evidence to establish when the document was
publicly available.</p>
https://hroy.eu/work/oin/tutorial-linuxdefenders/defpub-guide/2014-10-09T10:54:06Z2014-10-09T10:54:06Z
<header>
<h1 class="title">Defensive Publication example</h1>
</header>
<p>Your defensive publication should describe a part of your software and give an overview of the technical problem your software addresses. Your publication can also mention alternative and/or prior solutions if any. The publication should give enough details on how it works on an abstract level, so that another programmer would be able to make an implementation.</p>
<p>For this tutorial, we will take as an example <a href="http://www.kdab.com/defensive-patent-publication-qt-type-erased-iteration/">a Defensive Patent Publication for Qt</a> about which the author has <a href="http://www.kdab.com/defensive-patent-publication-qt-type-erased-iteration/">blogged</a>.</p>
<div id="tutorial-linuxdefenders-local-css">
<section id="meta" class="level">
<section class="example">
<span class="hide">Example</span>
</section>
<section class="comments">
Guidelines
</section>
</section>
<section id="title" class="level">
<span class="defpubstep">①</span>
<section class="example">
<header>
<h1 class="title">Type- Erased Container Iteration</h1>
<h2 class="author">Stephen Kelly <a href="mailto:stephen.kelly@kdab.com">stephen.kelly@kdab.com</a></h2>
<h3 class="date">January 23, 2014</h3>
</header>
</section>
<section class="comments">
<section id="title-of-defensive-publication" class="level1">
<h1>Title of Defensive Publication</h1>
<p>The idea is to <strong>get the patent examiner’s attention</strong> when reviewing a patent application relevant to the system disclosed in your publication.</p>
<ol type="1">
<li><p>If the system is solving a well known, general problem in an innovative way, your title should describe the system in abstract terms.</p></li>
<li><p>If the system is solving a more specific problem, it is probably better to emphasize the problem so that further patent applications aiming at solving the same problem will be compared with your publication.</p>
<p>For example, your title could begin like: “System for… [problem]”</p></li>
<p>Thus, the title does not have to reflect precisely what the software is, it should be general enough to be understood by the patent examiner.</p>
</ol>
</section>
</section>
</section>
<section id="abstract" class="level">
<span class="defpubstep">②</span>
<section class="example">
<section class="abstract">
<h3>Abstract</h3>
<p>A runtime registration system is required to assign an integral value to each unique type which may be contained, and each container. This may use <code>rtti</code> (run-time type information) supplied by the compiler, or it may use external scaffolding. What is disclosed is a method of <code>type erasure</code> whereby the elements of a container may be iterated over, without static knowledge of the type of the container or the type of the elements of the container.</p>
<h4 class="keywords">Keywords</h4>
<ul class="tags">
<li>Type-erasure</li>
<li>container</li>
<li>iteration</li>
<li>rtti</li>
<li>runtime type information</li>
<li>dynamic type</li>
<li>dynamic typing</li>
<li>variable type</li>
<li>any type</li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
<section class="comments">
<section id="abstract-or-introduction" class="level1">
<h1>Abstract or Introduction</h1>
<p>The abstract should <strong>give a clear idea what area of technology your solution relates to</strong> and give an overview of what your solution is.</p>
<ol type="1">
<li>Briefly describe the technological area in which your solution operates and point out specific issues that are hard to solve or unsatisfactorily solved that are related to your solution.
<ol type="a">
<li>Give examples of <strong>existing solutions to reflect the state of the art</strong> in this area of technology</li>
<li>Briefly describe the trends or practices in this area of technology or other areas of technology that create opportunities for new or better solutions.</li>
</ol></li>
<li>Include <strong>a short overview of your technology</strong> by briefly describing how the solution works without giving too many details on implementation.</li>
<li>Provide context:
<ol type="a">
<li>If your publication is strongly related to one or more existing patents, identify them in the abstract and explain how they are related to your publication.</li>
<li>Briefly state where this technology could be used (i.e. mobile devices, gaming, automotive)</li>
</ol></li>
</ol>
<section id="keywords" class="level2">
<h2>Keywords</h2>
<p>A list of keywords to make the document easier to search. Pick between five tags and ten tags.</p>
</section>
</section>
</section>
</section>
<section id="problem" class="level">
<span class="defpubstep">③</span>
<section class="example">
<section id="introduction" class="level1">
<h1>Introduction</h1>
<p>A strong type system provides readability, safety of data interpretation and can be used for compatibility between different code from different vendors. The type of all code components is determined at time of compilation of source code and is immutable. The consumer of an instance of data must know the type of the data in order to process it. Intermediate code may transport references to data, without communicating the type of the data, by using the void pointer type. Such a void pointer may be coupled with an runtime integral value which corresponds to the strict, static type. The integral value may be used at runtime to determine the viability of interpretation of the data as a particular static type. This is already common practice.</p>
<p>Containers are a category of type which refer to a collection of instances of a particular element type. Containers differ in implementation details such as whether elements are stored contiguously in memory, or as a linked list for example. Containers have associated types which may be used to iterate over and process the elements in the array. Such iterator types are strongly coupled to the element type in the container. Thus, to iterate over and process the elements in a container, the type of the container must be statically (ie, at compile time) known and the type of the elements in the container must be statically known.</p>
</section>
</section>
<section class="comments">
<section id="problem-opportunity" class="level1">
<h1>Problem/ Opportunity</h1>
<p>This section helps to provide context as to the defensive publication. This is useful to give input on what <strong>the state of the art</strong> is in relation to your defensive publication.</p>
<p>Use this section to provide:</p>
<ol type="1">
<li>Explanations and background of the problem being solved</li>
<li>Description of the existing solutions</li>
<li>Description on the current trends followed in this area or in other technologies that are also applicable to this problem</li>
<li>Emphasis on what makes your solution stand out compared to existing solutions</li>
</ol>
</section>
</section>
</section>
<section id="description" class="level">
<span class="defpubstep">④</span>
<section class="example">
<section id="description" class="level1">
<h1>Description</h1>
<p>A runtime registration system is required to assign an integral value to each unique type which may be contained, and each container. This may use <code>rtti</code> (run-time type information) supplied by the compiler, or it may use external scaffolding.</p>
<p>What is disclosed is a method of <code>type erasure</code> whereby the elements of a container may be iterated over, without static knowledge of the type of the container or the type of the elements of the container.</p>
<p>This method is applicable to a language which:</p>
<ol type="1">
<li><p>Is statically typed</p></li>
<li><p>Has a way to represent data whose type is not known (eg a void pointer)</p></li>
<li><p>Has a way to cast/interpret such non-typed data as a particular static type, where the type is defined at compile-time.</p></li>
<li><p>Has a common way to represent operations on containers (eg iterators, algorithms) with “static polymorphism” - that is, the API is the same regardless of the precise type of the container or the type of the element in the container.</p></li>
<li><p>Has no convenient built-in to provide container abstraction features.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>That includes C++, but may include other languages.</p>
</section>
</section>
<section class="comments">
<section id="description-of-your-solution" class="level1">
<h1>Description of your solution</h1>
<p>This section should be clear and exact so that a “person having skill in the art a.k.a. PHOSITA” (e.g. another programmer) can implement and make use of the system described in your publication.</p>
<ol type="1">
<li><p>Description of how this invention/ idea works</p>
<p>It should be a few paragraphs of text. Avoid domain specific language. Say “database” instead of “MySQL” for example.</p></li>
<li><p>Why this is better/ more efficient/ needed over what is currently available.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>In order to adequately describe an invention, be sure to discuss how each component works within the method/system by breaking the invention down into steps and diagrams. Examples of potential applications and references to compare how this invention improves on what was previously available should also be included.</p>
</section>
</section>
</section>
<section id="steps" class="level">
<span class="defpubstep">⑤</span>
<section class="example">
<p>In the diagram , the strongly typed container is on the left side ‘Container Type’, and it has an associated ‘Iterator Type’.</p>
<ol type="1">
<li><p>A static <code>Variant</code> type is defined as an abstraction containing a void pointer to data and a run-time type identifier. Such a type may be created with statically typed data only. When such a type is created with data which is a container, a registry is populated to relate the run-time type identifier to a container abstraction implementation.</p></li>
<li><p>The container abstraction implementation (‘Implementation’ in the diagram) stores a type-erased, immutable void-pointer to the container, a type-erased, mutable void pointer representing an iterator, and various function pointers for the operations (‘Typed Operation’ in the diagram) which need to be performed on an iterator to the container. Such operations include but are not limited to increment, decrement, dereference, advance, distance, comparison and assignment .</p></li>
<li><p>The static type used to create the <code>Variant</code> instance is also used to construct the container abstraction implementation. The function pointers in the container abstraction implementation are generated with a factory template-dependent method. The API of the pointed-to functions are type- erased.</p></li>
<li><p>The implementation of the pointed-to functions operate on iterators and are implemented according to standards and library features for iterators, including but not limited to increment, decrement dereference, advance, distance, comparison and assignment.</p></li>
<li><p>There are generally two different forms of container iterators. One is a pointer to contained data, which is suitable for containers which store elements contiguously in memory. The other is a standalone type which supports the standard API required of an iterator type. The two forms are handled differently. In the first case, the type-erased mutable void pointer representing an iterator stored in the container abstraction implementation may point to the actual data in the container. In the second case, the type-erased mutable void pointer representing an iterator stored in the container abstraction implementation may point to a heap-assigned copy of the standalone type which supports the standard API required of an iterator type. The heap-assigned copy is deleted when no longer required.</p></li>
<li><p>An abstraction is defined which encapsulates the operations on the container iterator objects. The abstraction must handle at least assignment (which may include heap construction), deletion (in the case of heap construction only), advancing the iterator, dereferencing and comparison. The abstraction is implemented in terms of an iterator as a-pointer-to-contained data and as a standalone type. In all cases, the result of mutation is stored in the type-erased, mutable void pointer representing an iterator in the container abstraction implementation.</p></li>
<li><p>The container abstraction is defined in terms of the container abstraction implementation. The container abstraction (‘Type-erased Iterable’ in the diagram) contains standard methods to allow creation of type-erased iterator implementations pointing to the beginning and end of a container, as well as iterators pointing to particular seeked elements. This allows the use of standard library algorithms and language features as they apply to the containers. The Type-erased Iterator is implemented in terms of the container abstraction implementation.</p></li>
<li><p>Dereferencing a type-erased iterator yields an instance of a <code>Variant</code>, which contains a type-erased void pointer to data in the container, and an integral value representing the type. The integral value may be examined to interpret the void pointer as a static type which can be used with other code.</p></li>
</ol>
</section>
<section class="comments">
<section id="steps-to-create-the-invention" class="level1">
<h1>Steps to create the invention</h1>
<p>Publications and patents relevant to software will typically consist of several steps. Each step should be described in detail for this portion.</p>
<ol type="1">
<li>Break down each component and describe how each component works with the overall system</li>
<li>List each step in the process and describe how each step is completed.</li>
</ol>
<p><em>Each of the system components should be described exhaustively</em></p>
</section>
<section id="examples" class="level1">
<h1>Examples</h1>
<p>If there are any alternate uses for this invention, be sure to include them. These are potential applications that have yet to be implemented.</p>
</section>
<section id="references" class="level1">
<h1>References</h1>
<p>If you have references to for example a publication in a scientific journal, technical report, USENET posting, or print magazine, include it here with as much information as possible (publication number, ISBN, ISSN, etcetera). Please make sure they are clearly marked in the rest of the document.</p>
<!-- You can add citations directly in your pandoc file or by using a
bibliography: see http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/README.html#citations-->
</section>
</section>
<section id="extras" class="level">
<span class="defpubstep">⑥</span>
<section class="example">
<figure>
<img src="https://hroy.eu/work/oin/diagram.jpg" alt="Diagram " /><figcaption>Figure 1: A title </figcaption>
</figure>
</section>
<section class="comments">
<section id="diagrams" class="level1">
<h1>Diagrams</h1>
<ol type="1">
<li>Illustrate how components interact</li>
<li>Show the overall process</li>
</ol>
<p>This can be a flow chart, a network diagram, etc.</p>
</section>
</section>
</section>
</div>
<hr class="break" />
<h1>What happens next</h1>
<p>To get started drafting your own defensive publication, you can <a href="https://github.com/LinuxDefenders/defpub-template/archive/master.zip">download our template</a> and follow the instructions therein. You can access several sources for defensive publications <a href="https://github.com/LinuxDefenders">on our Github page</a>.</p>
<p>Once your publication has been vetted by Linux Defenders, it will be submitted to the relevant patent-related databases and on <a href="http://defensivepublications.org/">defensivepublications.org</a>.</p>
https://hroy.eu/work/oin/submit-priorart-howto/USPTO/claimchart/2014-10-09T09:39:24Z2014-10-09T09:39:24Z
<table>
<colgroup>
<col width="15%" />
<col width="84%" />
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr class="header">
<th align="left">Claim 1</th>
<th align="left">Publication X</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr class="odd">
<td align="left"><p>Element A</p></td>
<td align="left"><p>As discussed on page 1, publication X discloses a machine that performs the same function as the machine recited in claim 1. The machine set forth in publication X includes many of the same parts discussed in the specification of this application. For example, in the first embodiment depicted in Figure 2 and discussed on page 5, the machine of publication X expressly includes element A of claim 1. See lines 7-14 on page 5 of publication X.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td align="left"><p>Element B</p></td>
<td align="left"><p>The first embodiment also includes element B of claim 1. See lines 1-3 on page 6 of publication X.</p></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
https://hroy.eu/work/oin/submit-priorart-howto/USPTO/usptoclasses/2014-10-09T09:31:48Z2014-10-09T09:31:48Z
<p>+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| # | Class Title |
+=====+===========================================================================+
| 341 | Coded Data Generation or Conversion |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 345 | Computer Graphics Processing and Selective Visual Display Systems |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 370 | Multiplex Communications |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 380 | Cryptography |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 381 | Electrical Audio Signal Processing Systems and Devices |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 382 | Image Analysis |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 700 | Data Processing: Generic Control Systems or Specific Applications |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 701 | Data Processing: Vehicles, Navigation, and Relative Location |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 702 | Data Processing: Measuring, Calibrating, or Testing |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 703 | Data Processing: Structural Design, Modeling, Simulation, and Emulation |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 704 | Data Processing: Speech Signal Processing, Linguistics, Language
| | Translation, and Audio Compression/Decompression |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 705 | Data Processing: Financial, Business Practice, Management, or Cost/Price |
| | Determination |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 706 | Data Processing: Artificial Intelligence |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 707 | Data Processing: Database and File Management or Data Structures |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 708 | Electrical Computers: Arithmetic Processing and Calculating |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 717 | Data Processing: Software Development, Installation, and Management |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 718 | Electrical Computers and Digital Processing Systems: Virtual Machine Task |
| | or Process Management or Task Management/Control |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 719 | Electrical Computers and Digital Processing Systems: Interprogram |
| | Communication or Interprocess Communication (Ipc) |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 720 | Dynamic Optical Information Storage or Retrieval |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 725 | Interactive Video Distribution Systems |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 726 | Information Security |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 902 | Electronic Funds Transfer |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 709 | Electrical Computers and Digital Processing Systems: Multicomputer Data |
| | Transferring |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 710 | Electrical Computers and Digital Data Processing Systems: Input/Output |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 711 | Electrical Computers and Digital Processing Systems: Memory |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 712 | Electrical Computers and Digital Processing Systems: Processing |
| | Architectures and Instruction Processing (e.g., Processors) |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 713 | Electrical Computers and Digital Processing Systems: Support |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 714 | Error Detection/Correction and Fault Detection/Recovery |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 715 | Data Processing: Presentation Processing of Document, Operator Interface |
| | Processing, and Screen Saver Display Processing |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 716 | Computer-Aided Design and Analysis of Circuits and Semiconductor Masks |
+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+</p>
<p>: USPTO classification relevant to software</p>
https://hroy.eu/work/oin/submit-priorart-howto/USPTO/2014-10-09T13:14:43Z2014-10-09T09:24:51Z
<p><aside class="toc">
Contents</p>
<p></aside></p>
<p>With the passing of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leahy-Smith_America_Invents_Act">America Invents
Act</a>, the
US patent office now accepts prior art submissions from anyone. This
guide will help you get through the procedure to submit prior art
effectively and contribute to getting patent applications rejected.</p>
<p><aside class="sidenote note right"> <!--Trying to be very, very concise at the expense of legal details--></p>
<h4>What is prior art?</h4>
<p>Prior art is information available to the public before a patent
application’s filing date. If a patent application claims something that
already existed or something which was already obvious, then such patent
application is invalid.
</aside></p>
<h1>The USPTO procedure to submit prior art before the issuance of a patent</h1>
<p>There are several ways in which prior art can be used to invalidate a
patent or a patent application. Since 2012, <strong>anyone[^1] can submit
prior art</strong> before a patent gets granted, <strong>during the application
phase.</strong></p>
<p>The prior art references must be submitted to the US patent office in a
procedure called <a href="http://www.uspto.gov/patents/init_events/preissuance_submissions.jsp">third-party preissuance
submissions</a>
(“code name:” 3PPI). This procedure is subject to <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/35/122">§122
(e)</a> of title 35 of the
US Code.</p>
<h2>When to submit prior art to the US patent office?</h2>
<p>The submission has to be sent in time during the application phase:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><em>no more than 6 months</em> after the patent application was published,</p>
<p>or</p></li>
<li><p>as long as <em>no part of the application has been rejected</em> by the
patent examiner (section
<a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/35/132">132</a> notice)</p>
<p>whichever comes last.</p></li>
</ul>
<h3>Example</h3>
<ul>
<li>2013: Inventor X files for a patent</li>
<li>May 2014: the US patent office publishes the patent application
(under section <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/35/122">122</a>
(b))</li>
</ul>
<p>We have three possible scenarios:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The patent examiner issues a §151 <em>notice of allowance</em> before
November 2014</p>
<p>Then, it is <strong>too late</strong> to submit prior art after that notice.
Prior art submissions under the third-party preissuance procedure
must be made on patent applications, not granted patents.</p></li>
<li><p>The patent examiner issues a §132 <em>notice of rejection</em> before
November 2014</p>
<p>You can <strong>still submit prior art</strong> references until November 2014,
which is during a 6-month timeframe starting from the publication of
the patent application (in our example, May 2014 → November 2014).</p></li>
<li><p>The patent examiner issues a §132 notice of rejection <em>after
November 2014</em></p>
<p>You can <strong>still submit prior art</strong> references after November 2014,
until the patent examiner issues such <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/35/132">a §132
notice</a>.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>For more information, you can refer to the USPTO’s answers on <a href="http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/faqs-preissuance-submissions.jsp#heading-5">Timing of
a Preissuance
Submission</a>.</p>
<h2>Which prior art references can you submit?</h2>
<p>Two conditions are absolutely necessary for a document to constitute
prior art:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the document must have been made available to the public</p></li>
<li><p>the publication date is paramount in order for prior art to be
relevant for challenging patent validity, so any document where the
publication date is uncertain is going to have less value.[^2]</p></li>
</ul>
<!--
The publication date matters in different ways, depending on which section of
patent validity is applied:
c1a267d75a1918009718f700314e0191
So, **any document that was available to the public before the filing date of
the patent application can constitute prior art.**
-->
<p>In order to constitute prior art and establish that the patent
application claims something that is <strong>not new</strong>, the publication date
must precede the patent application filing date and its priority date.</p>
<!--# What makes a good prior art reference?
You can only submit **up to 3 prior art references** for each patent
application. So it’s important to select your best prior art references.
[FIXME: I lack strategic insight here, from my understanding of what Raffi wanted, the most useful prior art references are those which make the patent fail the novelty threshold. But what if prior art is inadmissible for novelty but would still be very good for the non-obvious test? which are the chances that would work, how much should we encourage this?]
[QUESTION: Raffi: maybe you could give a few pieces of advice on what you think makes good prior art for 3PPI]
[TODO: explain in more details date for novelty]
543288d0caf2548e7dffd880d810e23b
[TODO: explain claimcharts here?]-->
<h1>HOWTO submit your selected prior art references</h1>
<h2>Find relevant patent applications in the USPTO database</h2>
<p>The US patent office classifies patent and applications in classes and
subclasses. Linux Defenders maintain <a href="https://hroy.eu/work/oin/usptoclasses">a list of classes relevant to
software</a> taken from the <a href="http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/classification/selectnumwithtitle.htm">USPTO
classification</a>.</p>
<p>To <a href="http://appft1.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/search-adv.html">search through the database of patent
applications</a> and
monitor classes of interest, you need to <a href="http://appft1.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/help/helpadv.html">learn their query
format</a>.</p>
<p>For instance, to search all applications related to Artificial
Intelligence (class <strong>706</strong>), query <code>CCL/<strong>706</strong>/$</code>.</p>
<p>You can also limit the query to certain timeframes. For instance, to
search from <strong>January 2014</strong> to <strong>September</strong> 2014, add to your query
<code>AND PD/<strong>1</strong>/$/<strong>2014</strong>-><strong>9</strong>/$/2014</code> (The <code>$</code> works as a
catch-all).</p>
<p><aside class="sidenote note right"></p>
<p>The USPTO maintains a <a href="http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/faqs-preissuance-submissions.jsp">FAQ related to preissuance
submissions</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/faqs-preissuance-submissions.jsp#heading-1">General</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/faqs-preissuance-submissions.jsp#heading-2">Filing a Preissuance
Submission</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/faqs-preissuance-submissions.jsp#heading-3">Content of a Preissuance
Submission</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/faqs-preissuance-submissions.jsp#heading-4">Concise Description of
Relevance</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/faqs-preissuance-submissions.jsp#heading-5">Timing of a Preissuance
Submission</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/faqs-preissuance-submissions.jsp#heading-6">Fees</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/faqs-preissuance-submissions.jsp#heading-7">Processing of Preissuance
Submissions</a></li>
</ul>
<p></aside></p>
<h2>Submit prior art</h2>
<p>The procedure of third party preissuance submissions is identified as
“37 CFR 1.290” within the USPTO. You can <strong>submit up to three prior art
references</strong> without <a href="http://www.uspto.gov/about/offices/cfo/finance/fees.jsp">paying
fees</a> and
statement “37 CFR 1.290(g)” is selected in the submission interface. You
can <a href="https://efs.uspto.gov/efile/portal/efs-unregistered">submit without
registration</a>.
<a href="https://efs.uspto.gov/efile/myportal/efs-registered">Registered filers</a>
can save a submission draft for 7 days (the application requires Java).</p>
<p>When you select that you submit prior art for an existing application
and that the procedure is “37 CFR 1.290” you need to identify the patent
application with the application number. You will also need a
confirmation number, which can be found on the USPTO <a href="http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal/pair">PAIR
system</a>. You will need
this number when making your prior art submission and to track your
submission.</p>
<p>You have to select what kind of prior art reference you submit:</p>
<ul>
<li>a US patent</li>
<li>a US patent application</li>
<li>a foreign patent or patent application</li>
<li>non-patent documents</li>
</ul>
<p>However, it should be noted that almost all examiners rely on patent and
patent applications references when they reject claims so <strong>patent
references should be preferred over others</strong>.</p>
<h3>Formalities</h3>
<p><ul>
<li><p>For all of these documents, several details will be needed, like the
name of the inventor for a patent, the date of publication, the
title, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>For documents other than US patents, you will need to provide a
copy.</p></li>
<li><p>For documents not in English, you will need to attach a translation.</p></li>
<li><p>For each prior art reference, you need to provide the information to
identify portions of the document and to expose how they are
relevant to the patent.</p></p>
<p>However, <em>stick to the facts</em> and the content of the prior art
documents itself and <strong>don’t propose legal arguments related to the
patent’s validity</strong>, it is the exclusive competence of the examiner.</p>
<p>The USPTO suggests to format this information as a “claimchart”
emphasising elements of the claims on the left and a concise
description or quotation of relevance of the publication on the
right:</p>
<p><p><table class="table">
<colgroup>
<col width="15%" />
<col width="84%" />
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr class="tableheader">
<th align="left">
Claim 1
</th>
<th align="left">
Publication X
</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr class="odd">
<td align="left"><p>
Element A
</p></td>
<td align="left"><p>
As discussed on page 1, publication X discloses a machine that
performs the same function as the machine recited in claim 1. The
machine set forth in publication X includes many of the same parts
discussed in the specification of this application. For example, in
the first embodiment depicted in Figure 2 and discussed on page 5,
the machine of publication X expressly includes element A of claim</p></p>
<ol>
<li>See lines 7-14 on page 5 of publication X.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td align="left"><p>
Element B
</p></td>
<td align="left"><p>
The first embodiment also includes element B of claim 1. See lines
1-3 on page 6 of publication X.
</p></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table></li>
</ol>
<p></li>
</ul>
<!--</p>
<h4>Evidence for lack of an actual publication date {#nopubdate}</h4>
<p>The publication date is paramount to make prior art admissible. However,
sometimes a prior art reference does not contain a publication date itself. In
such cases, it is necessary to submit evidence that the document was publicly
accessible before the filing date of the patent application. Such evidence may
be in the form of affidavits or declarations.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) § <a href="http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s715.html">715</a>.04(II). II. Formal
requirements of affidavits and declarations</p>
<p>An affidavit is a statement in writing made under oath before a notary
public, magistrate, or officer authorized to administer oaths. See MPEP §
602et seq. for additional information regarding formal requirements of
affidavits.</p>
<p>37 CFR 1.68 permits a declaration to be used instead of an affidavit. The
declaration must include an acknowledgment by the declarant that willful
false statements and the like are punishable by fine or imprisonment, or both
(18 U.S.C. 1001) and may jeopardize the validity of the application or any
patent issuing thereon. The declarant must set forth in the body of the
declaration that all statements made of the declarant’s own knowledge are
true and that all statements made on information and belief are believed to
be true. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>According to [the USPTO][FAQ]:
Affidavits and declarations submitted as evidence of publication must be limited to facts establishing why a submitted document qualifies as a publication and must not to be used as a mechanism to place information that is not pertinent to establishing the document as a publication before the examiner. Further, affidavits and declarations submitted as evidence of publication should explain how the affiant/declarant has personal knowledge of the facts described therein and must be specific to the document(s) submitted for consideration.
--></p>
<p>[^1]: From the USPTO: A third-party can submit prior art, but not an
individual who has a duty to disclose information with respect to
the application (i.e., each individual associated with the filing
and prosecution of the patent application) under 37 CFR 1.56. The
party making the submission must also state that the submission
complies with the requirements of 35 U.S.C. 122(e) and 37 CFR 1.290.</p>
<p>[^2]: Where the actual publication date of a document is not known, you
will have to provide evidence to establish when the document was
publicly available. <!--See <a href="#nopubdate">below</a>.--></p>