USPTO issues notice of proposed rulemaking to permit submission of higher-capacity physical media

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Patent Alert

USPTO issues notice of proposed rulemaking to permit submission of higher-capacity physical media

The USPTO has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to amend the rules of practice to permit the submission of physical media larger than compact discs for electronic versions of amino acid and nucleotide sequence information, information compiled in a large table, and information relating to a computer program listing. Patent applications for certain inventions require significant amounts of data to be submitted to the USPTO in order to determine whether the invention is patentable. Currently, submission of that data might exceed the capacity of the agency’s patent electronic filing systems.

Additional rules proposed in the NPRM would permit the extraction of compressed data files. The NPRM also proposes to eliminate rules relating to certain obsolete and non-secure methods of presenting data and rules permitting an applicant to rely on a previously submitted computer readable form of required sequence information.

The full text of the notice is available at the Federal Register, and can also be found on the Patent Related Notices webpage. Comments on the NPRM must be submitted by July 26, 2021, through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at www.regulations.gov to ensure consideration.