A: 37CFR.com is used only to complete your preexamination search and the associated Accelerated Examination Support Document (AESD) in compliance with the USPTO rules. For detailed information on completing an AE, see Accelerated Examination on the USPTO website.

Contact a qualified patent attorney or agent to discuss completing the parts of your AE application that 37CFR.com does not address.

A: There are many conditions provided by the USPTO for filing for an Accelerated Examination – and many conditions that may prevent you from filing for an Accelerated Examination. PatentCafe does not provide legal advice or guidance regarding your patent application. Please review the requirements on the USPTO website http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/accelerated/ , and/or consult your registered patent attorney or agent. 37CFR.com is used only to comply with the AESD requirements.

A: 37CFR.com is a web-based software application. There is no software to install or download to your computer. You only need an internet-connected computer, Firefox or Internet Explorer web browser, and Adobe Acrobat Reader.

A: Once you open a new case for preparing an AESD, you can go back to it an unlimited number of times prior to closing the case in order to add references found in third party databases, or to edit any data already input. Once you close the case and submit the preexamination search report to the USPTO, your account remains active, but your case is closed. In the event that you need to re-file a supplemental AESD, you may re-open the case as a “Supplemental Report”. Active accounts may re-print, open and complete one Supplemental AESD Report for filing, or archive a case for up to 18 months without any additional expense.

A: Accelerated Examinations can be an exceedingly valuable tool to more quickly address infringers, quickly obtain granted patents to build portfolio value, or to secure a patent position prior to introducing products to the marketplace. 37CFR.com is designed to significantly cut your total AESD costs, while increasing search report quality and completeness. Pricing is based on the estimated number of AESDs that you or your firm would expect to file over the course of 12 months. Contact a PatentCafe sales executive to discuss your AESD requirements and multi-license pricing.

A: The machine intelligence of 37CFR.com is quite advanced, but it cannot replace your technical and legal domain expertise in selecting prior art references. Think of 37CFR more as powerful, decision-support software that will help you identify the most relevant documents – faster than any Boolean search engine. 37CFR.com uses a proven, latent semantic analysis search technology to bring the patents most closely related to your full text search query to the top of the list in just 10-15 seconds per search, and even if the top ranked patents don’t contain the keywords you used in your query. After you review these documents, you simply click “add” to include any patent as a reference – and ignore those that don’t perfectly refer to your present invention.

A: 37CFR’s Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) patent search engine uses the full text of each claim as a search query, automatically returning all patents that “teach” the core invention claimed by application – even if the most highly ranked referenced don’t contain the primary words used in the claims. LSA is currently the only patent search technology not limited to finding prior art based on keywords – “giving the claims the broadest reasonable interpretation” (37CFR § 1.98 and MPEP 904.01 Analysis of Claims).

A: YES – in fact, the “Examination Guidelines for Determining Obviousness Under 35 U.S.C. 103 in View of the Supreme Court Decision in KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc.” (published October 10, 2007) require the examiner to look for “prior art that is in a field of endeavor other than that of the applicant,26 or solves a problem which is different from that which the applicant was trying to solve, may also be considered for the purposes of 35 U.S.C. 103”. The LSA search technology integrated into 37CFR will outperform even the most skilled patent searcher using keyword search engines in looking “outside of the obvious” box to identify prior art that the Examiner may cite in Obviousness objections in light of the KSR ruling.

A: The AESD preexamination search report must identify the classification searched, the search logic or chemical structure or sequence used as a query, the name of the file or files searched and the database service, and the date of the search (MPEP § 904). Only after selecting a patent from the search results list as a reference to a particular claim will the information required under this section be added to your record. Search queries, file names and dates are not recorded for any search query that does not result in a reference to the current claim.

A: 37CFR does not actually classify the claims – it uses artificial intelligence to instantly list the most closely related main US Classifications for you to review. You’l see the full text description of the main class, as well as the sub-classification descriptions and the most recently classified patent with the selected class/subclass combination. You will still need to select the most closely related Class/Subclass combination, but 37CFR will instantly narrow your focus to the most likely classification options faster than you can even login to the USPTO website.

A: 37CFR.com contains its own US and Foreign patent database as required for the IDS under 37CFR §1.98. However, you may have other patent or non-patent literature references that you want to include – for instance, results from a chemical structure search on CAS. 37CFR has quick-open windows for “copy and paste” entry of third party references. You can also identify the claims limitations described in the references, and add your explanation of patentability. All of your input will be compiled into a single AESD report, ready to print and file with the US Patent Office.