2425    Form and Format for Nucleotide and/or Amino Acid Sequence Submissions in Computer Readable Form [R-07.2015]

37 C.F.R. 1.824   Form and format for nucleotide and/or amino acid sequence submissions in computer readable form.

  • (a) The computer readable form required by § 1.821(e)  shall meet the following requirements:
    • (1) The computer readable form shall contain a single "Sequence Listing" as either a diskette, series of diskettes, or other permissible media outlined in paragraph (c) of this section.
    • (2) The "Sequence Listing" in paragraph (a)(l) of this section shall be submitted in American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) text. No other formats shall be allowed.
    • (3) The computer readable form may be created by any means, such as word processors, nucleotide/amino acid sequence editors’ or other custom computer programs; however, it shall conform to all requirements detailed in this section.
    • (4) File compression is acceptable when using diskette media, so long as the compressed file is in a self-extracting format that will decompress on one of the systems described in paragraph (b) of this section.
    • (5) Page numbering must not appear within the computer readable form version of the "Sequence Listing" file.
    • (6) All computer readable forms must have a label permanently affixed thereto on which has been hand-printed or typed: the name of the applicant, the title of the invention, the date on which the data were recorded on the computer readable form, the operating system used, a reference number, and an application number and filing date, if known. If multiple diskettes are submitted, the diskette labels must indicate their order (e.g., "1 of X").
  • (b) Computer readable form submissions must meet these format requirements:
    • (1) Computer Compatibility: IBM PC/XT/AT or Apple Macintosh;
    • (2) Operating System Compatibility: MS-DOS, MS-Windows, Unix or Macintosh;
    • (3) Line Terminator: ASCII Carriage Return plus ASCII Line Feed; and
    • (4) Pagination: Continuous file (no "hard page break" codes permitted).
  • (c) Computer readable form files submitted may be in any of the following media:
    • (1) Diskette: 3.50 inch, 1.44 Mb storage; 3.50 inch, 720 Kb storage; 5.25 inch, 1.2 Mb storage; 5.25 inch, 360 Kb storage.
    • (2) Magnetic tape: 0.5 inch, up to 24000 feet; Density: 1600 or 6250 bits per inch, 9 track; Format: Unix tar command; specify blocking factor (not "block size"); Line Terminator: ASCII Carriage Return plus ASCII Line Feed.
    • (3) 8mm Data Cartridge: Format: Unix tar command; specify blocking factor (not "block size"); Line Terminator: ASCII Carriage Return plus ASCII Line Feed.
    • (4) Compact disc: Format: ISO 9660 or High Sierra Format.
    • (5) Magneto Optical Disk: Size/Storage Specifications: 5.25 inch, 640 Mb.
  • (d) Computer readable forms that are submitted to the Office will not be returned to the applicant.

37 CFR 1.824  sets forth the requirements for sequence submissions in computer readable form. Any computer operating system may be utilized to produce a sequence submission; however, the resultant file must have the characteristics specified in 37 CFR 1.824.

If the sequence listing required by 37 CFR 1.821(c)  cannot be submitted via EFS-Web because it is larger than 100 megabytes (see MPEP § 2422.03(a)), and it is impractical to provide the sequence listing on compact discs or other electronic media as set forth in 37 CFR 1.824  due to the size of the sequence listing, an exception via a non-fee petition to waive this provision will be considered. As set forth in 37 CFR 1.824(d), the computer readable forms that are submitted in accordance with these rules will not be returned to the applicant. 37 CFR 1.824(a)(6)  requires the labeling, with appropriate identifying information, of the computer readable forms that are submitted in accordance with these rules.