During the USPTO’s September 13th Patent Quality Chat, the Office provided additional details regarding its announcement that it is seeking to implement a program that will alleviate applicants’ burden in bringing references cited in related applications to the attention of the Office. As we previously reported, the USPTO is exploring how to best utilize available electronic resources to automatically provide examiners with access to information (e.g., prior art, search reports, etc.) from related applications with the aim of increasing patent examination quality and efficiency. Related applications might include, for example, domestic child or parent applications and foreign counterparts.
