901.04 U.S. Patents [R-3]
The following different series of U.S. patents are being or in the past have been issued. The date of patenting given on the face of each copy is the publication date and is the one usually cited. The filing date, in most instances also given on the face of the patent, is ordinarily the effective date as a reference (35 U.S.C. 102(e) ). See MPEP § 706.02(f)(1) and § 2127, paragraph II. The 35 U.S.C. 102(e) date of a U.S. patent can be an earlier effective U.S. filing date. For example, the 35 U.S.C. 102 (e) prior art date of a U.S. patent issued from a nonprovisional application claiming the benefit of a prior provisional application (35 U.S.C. 111(b) ) is the filing date of the provisional application for subject matter that is disclosed in the provisional application.
X-Series. These are the approximately 10,000 patents issued between 1790 and July 4, 1836. They were not originally numbered, but have since been assigned numbers in the sequence in which they were issued. The number should not be cited. When copies are ordered, the patentee’s name and date of issue suffice for identification.
1836 Series. The mechanical, electrical, and chemical patents issued since 1836 and frequently designated as "utility" patents are included in this series. A citation by number only is understood to refer to this series. This series comprises the bulk of all U.S. patents issued. Some U.S. patents issued in 1861 bear two numbers but only the larger number should be cited.
Reissue Series. Reissue patents (MPEP § 1401) have been given a separate series of numbers preceded by "Re." In citing, the letters and the number must be given, e.g., Re. 1776. The date that it is effective as a reference is the effective date of the original patent application, not the filing date of the reissue application.
Design reissue patents are numbered with the same number series as "utility" reissue patents. The letter prefix does, however, indicate them to be design reissues.
A.I. Series. From 1838 to 1861, patents covering an inventor’s improvement on his or her own patented device were given a separate series of numbers preceded by "A.I." to indicate Additional Improvement. In citing, the letters and the number must be given, e.g., A.I. 113. About 300 such patents were issued.
Plant Patent Series. When the statutes were amended to provide for patenting certain types of plants (see MPEP Chapter 1600) these patents were given a separate series of numbers. In citing, the letters "P.P." and the number must be given, e.g., P.P. 13.
Design Patents. Patents for designs (see MPEP Chapter 1500) are issued under a separate series of numbers preceded by "D." In citing, the letter "D" and the number must be given, e.g., D. 140,000.
NUMBERS FOR IDENTIFICATION OF BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA ON THE FIRST PAGE OF PATENT AND LIKE DOCUMENTS (INID NUMBERS)
The purpose of INID Codes ("INID" is an acronym for "Internationally agreed Numbers for the Identification of (bibliographic) Data") is to provide a means whereby the various data appearing on the first page of patent and like documents can be identified without knowledge of the language used and the laws applied. They are now used by most patent offices and have been applied to U.S. patents since Aug. 4, 1970. Some of the codes are not pertinent to the documents of a particular country and some which are may, in fact, not be used. For a list of INID Codes, see MPEP § 901.05(b).
901.04(a) Kind Codes [R-3]
On January 2, 2001, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) began printing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standard ST.16 code on each of its published patent documents. WIPO Standard ST.16 codes (kind codes) include a letter, and in many cases a number, used to distinguish the kind of patent document (e.g., publication of an application for a utility patent (patent application publication), utility patent, plant patent application publication, plant patent, or design patent) and the level of publication (e.g., first publication, second publication, or corrected publication). Detailed information on Standard ST.16 and the use of kind codes by patent offices throughout the world is available on the WIPO web site at http://www.wipo.int/scit/en under the links for WIPO standards and other documentation.
In addition, some kind codes assigned to existing USPTO patent documents were changed because, beginning on March 15, 2001, patent application publications began to be published weekly on Thursdays.
The tables below give a summary of the kind codes which are no longer being used on certain published patent documents as well as a summary of the kind codes which will be used on published patent documents after January 2, 2001. It is recommended that USPTO documents be identified by the following three elements: (A) the two-character country code (US for United States of America); (B) the patent or publication number; and (C) the WIPO ST.16 kind code. For example, "US 7,654,321 B1" for U.S. Patent No. 7,654,321 where there was no previously published patent application publication, and "US 2003/1234567 A1" for U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/1234567, in 2003. Each year the numbering of published patent applications will begin again with the new four-digit year and the number 0000001, so the number of a patent application publication must include an associated year.
| Summary of USPTO Kind Codes No Longer Used as of January 2, 2001* | ||
|---|---|---|
| WIPO ST.16 Kind Codes | Kind of document | Comments |
| A | Patent | Kind code replaced by B1 or B2 |
| P | Plant Patent | Kind code replaced by P2 or P3 |
| B1, B2, B3... | Reexamination Certificate | Kind code replaced by C1, C2, C3... |
*See the table below for the new uses for codes B1 and B2 beginning January 2, 2001.
| Summary of USPTO Kind Codes Used on Documents Published Beginning January 2, 2001 | ||
|---|---|---|
| WIPO ST.16 Kind Codes | Kind of document | Comments |
| A1 | Patent Application Publication | Pre-grant publication available March 2001 |
| A2 | Patent Application Publication (Republication) | Pre-grant publication available March 2001 |
| A9 | Patent Application Publication (Corrected Publication) | Pre-grant publication available March 2001 |
| B1 | Patent | No previously published pre-grant publication |
| B2 | Patent | Having a previously published pre-grant publication and available March 2001 |
| C1, C2, C3, ... | Reexamination Certificate | Previously used codes B1 and B2 are now used for granted Patents |
| E | Reissue Patent | No change |
| H | Statutory Invention Registration (SIR) | No change |
| P1 | Plant Patent Publication Application | Pre-grant publication available March 2001 |
| P2 | Plant Patent | No previously published pre-grant publication |
| P3 | Plant Patent | Having a previously published pre-grant publication and available March 2001 |
| P4 | Plant Patent Application Publication (Republication) | Pre-grant publication available after March 2001 |
| P9 | Plant Patent Application Publication (Corrected Publication) | Pre-grant publication available March 2001 |
| S | Design Patent | No change |