609.08 Electronic Processing of Information Disclosure Statement [R-7]
As of January 18, 2006, the Office began electronic processing of the list of citations (e.g., form PTO/SB/08) submitted as part of an information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted in applications stored by the Office in image form. Examiners are provided with a tool on their desktop (Annotation Tool deployed as part of eDAN 2.0) to electronically annotate citations and electronically sign the IDS when reviewing the cited references. The electronically processed IDS will be stored in the Office’s official record as an entry in the application’s image file wrapper (IFW) and a copy will be mailed to applicant as part of an Office action. Applicants that receive numerous Office actions may receive some IDS annotated by hand while receiving other IDSs annotated by electronic means for a limited time period.
ELECTRONIC ANNOTATION AND SIGNATURE
The electronic annotation, similar to hand written annotations, will cause the initials of the reviewing examiner to be applied to either: (A) the immediate left of each citation reviewed; or (B) the immediate left of the first of several consecutive citations and the left of the last of the consecutive citations reviewed with a line connecting the initials. Citations that have not been considered will be lined through.
The electronic signature will be in the form /John Q. Examiner/ at the bottom of the last sheet of citations of an IDS. The examiner may elect to electronically sign each sheet of citations considered.
As of October 1, 2007, examiners may use an alternative electronic signature method for IDS. Under the alternative electronic signature, examiners will no longer initial each reference citation considered, but will continue to strikethrough each citation not considered. Each page of reference citations will be stamped by the examiner with the phrase "All references considered except where lined through" along with the examiner’s electronic initials, and the final page of reference citations will include the examiner’s electronic signature.