ClaimMaster’s IDS tools (for +Shells subscribers) allow you to track prior art for IDS cross-cites between genealogically or thematically related applications linked into “cross-cite” groups. Creating IDS citations groups makes it easy to check cross-cites between groups of related applications and generate SB08a forms for the uncited references.
To create an IDS citation group for a particular set of applications, perform the following steps:
- Launch the “Explore and Diff IDS References” tool
From ClaimMaster ribbon, click on the USPTO Office Actions, Shells, and Forms menu, then Explore and Diff IDS References:
Next, switch to the “Citation Groups” tab to access the tool for creating and organizing citation groups.
- Create a new citation group or edit the existing one
In the “Citation Groups” tab, you can either edit existing IDS cross-cite groups or create new ones. To edit an existing group, pick one of the previously set up groups from the citation group dropdown. Otherwise, to create a new group, enter its name, description (optional), a list of the applications that belong to the group (also optional). You can also ask ClaimMaster to lookup a list of related applications for a given application # using its family tree tool.
- Add or edit existing citations to the group
You can manually add citations to the group by entering them or by copying & pasting your list into the cited publications or NPL windows. Each entry should being on a new line. Alternatively, switch to the Import citations tab where you can import citations into the group automatically.
You can import citations from:
* Files – files can be in PDF (e.g., the originally filed SB08 forms), Word, or text formats.
* Directories – you can import from forms in the specified directories (IDS forms in one directory vs forms in another directory).
* Patents/Pubs – specify patent or publication numbers and the tool will import prior art references from Google Patents/Free Patents Online/EPO.
* Patent Families – specify patent or application numbers and the tool will import prior art references for entire families from Google Patents/Free Patents Online/EPO.Once all the necessary citations have been added, click the “Save” button to save the citation group. If you are editing an existing IDS cross-cite group, any of your changes will be stored for the given group name. You can also click on “Delete group” button to remove the selected group from the database.
- Compare references between citation groups or other documents
Once you have one or more IDS cross-cite groups configured, you can quickly pull up all references for that group and compare those references to citations in other groups, documents, or patent families.
You can also quickly pull up the list of citations for any configured group from the IDS tool, making filling out IDS forms a snap:
For more information on this feature, check out the Online Manual.