In June 2013, the White House issued a series of Executive Actions concerning high-tech patent issues. Executive Action No. 2 concerned functional claiming, specifically, (i) improving functional claim clarity; and (ii) possible glossary usage in patent specifications. The White House assigned Executive Action No. 2 to the USPTO, stating: "The AIA made important improvements to the examination process and overall patent quality, but stakeholders remain concerned about patents with overly broad claims-particularly in the context of software. The PTO will provide new targeted training to its examiners on scrutiny of functional claims and will, over the next six months develop strategies to improve claim clarity, such as by use of glossaries in patent specifications to assist examiners in the software field."
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The Glossary Pilot has ended and is no longer accepting applications.
The guidelines below provide general information on specific requirements under this pilot program and are merely supplemental to the program requirements as set forth in the Federal Register notice, Glossary Pilot Program FR 79, 17137 (March 27, 2014) [PDF] .
- Frequently Asked Questions [PDF]
- Guidelines for Applicants under the Glossary Pilot Program
- Eligible Technology Areas for Pilot
- Form: PTO/SB/436
- EFS-Web Quick Start Guide for the Glossary Pilot Program [PDF] (When filing in EFS-Web, please remember to use the "Petition for Glossary Pilot" document description to identify your petition in order to ensure accurate processing.)
Announcements
- Patent Quality Chat (March 8, 2016)
- Glossary Pilot Report Out
- Glossary Pilot Statistics (46.23 KB)
- Glossary Pilot Extension (50.58 KB)
- USPTO Launches New Glossary Pilot Program to Promote Patent Claim Clarity (March 26, 2014)
- Glossary Pilot Program FR 79, 17137 (March 27, 2014) [PDF] Effective Date: June 2, 2014
- Alexandria Roundtable on Prior Art (December 5, 2013)
- Berkeley Roundtable on Glossary (October 17, 2013) (Glossary Discussions; Roundtable Videos; Comments)
Training
- Examination Guidance and Training Materials (First Inventor to File, Compact Prosecution)
- Glossary Pilot Examiner Training Slides [PDF]
Resources
- Executive Actions
- Software Partnership
- Patent Examination Policy
- Memoranda to Examining Corps
- Manual of Patent Examination Procedure
Contact Us
For further information please contact us by e-mail or telephone:
E-mail: Glossary@uspto.gov
Contact: Seema Rao,
Director, Technology Center 2100
(571)272-0800