The United States (and formerly, Australia) has a very strict requirement to disclose just about anything relevant to examining your patent application. If you don't disclose, you might end up with an unenforcable patent! It's pretty seriious. The disclosures are made in "Information Disclosure Statements" or "IDSs".
At our law firm, every three to four months, we have "IDS Day" where we go through all the patent applications we've filed since our last "IDS Day". It lists all references in four categories - U.S. Patents, U.S. Patent Publications (unissued patent applications that have been published), Foreign Patents, and Non-Patent Literature.
We use our own forms. Here's an excerpted part of what one looks like, after we put in our legal certification:
Examiner Initials |
Patent Number |
Title |
Issue Date |
Inventors |
---|---|---|---|---|
6807911 |
Pallet with stress resistant structure |
October 26, 2004 |
Carson; Craig (Kildeer, IL), Bendit; Mark (Avon, IN), Turley; Steven (Plainfield, IN) |
|
7607268 |
False walls consisting of stretched fabric and joined by an inclined separating ribband |
October 27, 2009 |
Scherrer; Jean-Marc (Riedisheim, FR), Scherrer; Jean-Paul (Mulhouse, FR) |
|
7644666 |
Pallet |
January 12, 2010 |
Smyers; Justin M. (San Luis Obispo, CA) |
|
... |
... |
... |
... |
Examiner Initials |
Patent Number |
Title |
(Publication Date) |
Inventors |
---|---|---|---|---|
20050034268 |
Heavy duty molded equipment slide |
(February 17, 2005) |
Wurdack, Roy A.; (Ooltewah, TN) |
|
20070234507 |
Fungible furniture glide |
(October 11, 2007) |
Vorpahl; Steven A.; (Concord, CA) |
Next, in four to fifty months, an Examiner looks at your application! Let's move on to what happens if they think you are claiming two inventions. This is called a VI. Restriction Requirement.