How are patent application publications numbered and identified?
Patent application publications have a unique numbering system and identification method. According to MPEP 901.04(a):
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.
For example, a patent application publication might be identified as:
- US 2003/1234567 A1
In this case, ‘2003’ indicates the year of publication, ‘1234567’ is the sequential number, and ‘A1’ is the kind code for a first publication of a patent application. This system ensures that each patent application publication has a unique identifier that includes both the year and a sequential number.
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