37 CFR § 1.58 — Chemical and mathematical formulas and (MPEP Coverage Index) – BlueIron IP
37 CFR § 1.58 Chemical and mathematical formulas and
Source: Patent Rule (37 CFR)BlueIron Update:
This page consolidates MPEP guidance interpreting 37 CFR § 1.58, including 179 rules from the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure. It is provided as guidance, with links to the ground truth sources. This is information only, it is not legal advice.
Summary
37 CFR 1.58 provides detailed regulations for electronically submitting complex scientific notation, large tables, and chemical/mathematical formulas in patent applications.
What this section covers
- Rules for submitting large tables and complex formulas in electronic patent applications
- Acceptable electronic formats for chemical and mathematical notation in patent documents
Key obligations
- Submit large tables in ASCII plain text via USPTO electronic filing system or read-only optical disc
- Provide replacement ASCII plain text files when amending large tables
- Follow specific formatting requirements for electronic document submissions
Conditions and exceptions
- Recognize specific conditions for electronic submission of complex scientific notation
Practice notes
- Carefully prepare electronic files to meet USPTO's strict formatting guidelines
- Verify that chemical and mathematical formulas are clearly and accurately represented in electronic submissions
Official MPEP § 1.58 — Chemical and mathematical formulas and
Source: USPTOLast Modified: 10/30/2024 08:50:22
1.58 Chemical and mathematical formulas and tables.
- (a) The specification, including the claims, may contain chemical and mathematical formulae, but shall not contain drawings or flow diagrams. The description portion of the specification may contain tables, but the same tables should not be included in both the drawings and description portion of the specification. Claims may contain tables either if necessary to conform to 35 U.S.C. 112 or if otherwise found to be desirable.
- (b) Chemical and mathematical formulas and tables must be presented in compliance with § 1.52(a) and (b) , except that chemical and mathematical formulas or tables may be placed in a landscape orientation if they cannot be presented satisfactorily in a portrait orientation. Typewritten characters used in such formulas and tables must be chosen from a block (nonscript) type font or lettering style having capital letters that should be at least 0.422 cm (0.166 inches) high ( e.g., preferably Arial, Times Roman, or Courier, with a font size of 12 points), but may be no smaller than 0.21 cm (0.08 inches) high ( e.g., a font size of 6 points). A space at least 0.64 cm (0.25 inches) high should be provided between complex formulas and tables and the text. Chemical and mathematical formulas must be configured to maintain the proper positioning of their characters when displayed in order to preserve their intended meaning. Tables should have the lines and columns of data closely spaced to conserve space, consistent with a high degree of legibility.
- (c) The following “Large Tables” may be
submitted in electronic form in ASCII plain text via the USPTO
patent electronic filing system or on a read-only optical disc, in
compliance with §
1.52(e)
,
excluding an international application during the international
stage:
- (1) Any individual table that is more than 50 pages in length; or
- (2) Multiple tables, if the total number of pages of all the tables in an application exceeds 100 pages in length, where a table page is a page printed on paper, in conformance with paragraph (b) of this section.
- (d) “Large Tables” submitted in electronic
form in ASCII plain text must conform to the following
requirements:
- (1) Must maintain the spatial relationships ( e.g., alignment of columns and rows) of the table elements when displayed to visually preserve the relational information they convey;
- (2) Must have the following
compatibilities:
- (i) Computer compatibility: PC or Mac ®;
- (ii) Operating system compatibility: MS–DOS ®, MS-Windows ®, Mac OS ®, or Unix ®/Linux ®.
- (3) Must be in ASCII plain text,
where:
- (i) All printable characters (including the space character) are permitted;
- (ii) No nonprintable (ASCII control) characters are permitted, except ASCII Carriage Return plus ASCII Line Feed (CRLF) or Line Feed (LF) as line terminators.
- (4) Must be named as *.txt, where “*” is one character or a combination of characters limited to upper- or lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores and does not exceed 60 characters in total, excluding the extension. No spaces or other types of characters are permitted in the file name; and
- (5) Must be incorporated by reference in a separate paragraph of the specification, in accordance with § 1.77(b)(5) .
- (e) “Large Tables” submitted via the USPTO patent electronic filing system must not exceed 25 MB, and file compression is not permitted.
- (f) “Large Tables” submitted in compliance
with §
1.52(e)
via
read-only optical disc must meet the following requirements:
- (1) The ASCII plain text file may be compressed using WinZip ®, 7-Zip, or Unix ®/Linux ® Zip;
- (2) A compressed file must not be self-extracting; and
- (3) A compressed ASCII plain text file that does not fit on a single read-only optical disc may be split into multiple file parts in accordance with the target read-only optical disc size and labeled in compliance with § 1.52(e)(5)(vi) .
- (g) Any amendments to “Large Tables” in
electronic form in ASCII plain text format must include:
- (1) A replacement ASCII plain text file, in accordance with the requirements of paragraphs (d) through (f) of this section, submitted via the USPTO patent electronic filing system or on a read-only optical disc, in compliance with § 1.52(e) , labeled as “REPLACEMENT MM/DD/YYYY” (with the month, day, and year of creation indicated);
- (2) A request that the amendment be made by incorporation by reference of the material in the replacement ASCII plain text file, in a separate paragraph of the specification (replacing any prior such paragraph, as applicable) identifying the name of the file, the date of creation, and the size of the file in bytes ( see § 1.77(b)(5) );
- (3) A statement that identifies the location of all deletions, replacements, or additions to the ASCII plain text file; and
- (4) A statement that the replacement ASCII plain text file contains no new matter.
- (h) The specification of an application with “Large Tables” as an ASCII plain text file, present on the application filing date, without an incorporation by reference of the material contained in the ASCII plain text file, must be amended to contain a separate paragraph incorporating by reference the material contained in the ASCII plain text file, in accordance with § 1.77(b)(5) .
- (i) Any read-only optical disc for “Large Tables” must be submitted in duplicate. The read-only optical disc and duplicate copy must be labeled “Copy 1” and “Copy 2,” respectively. The transmittal letter that accompanies the read-only optical discs must include a statement that the two read-only optical discs are identical. In the event that the two read-only optical disc copies are not identical, the Office will use the read-only optical disc labeled “Copy 1” for further processing.
- (j) Any amendment to the information on a read-only optical disc must be by way of a replacement read-only optical disc, in compliance with paragraph (g) of this section, where the replacement read-only optical disc and copy must be labeled “COPY 1 REPLACEMENT MM/ DD/YYYY” (with the month, day, and year of creation indicated), and “COPY 2 REPLACEMENT MM/DD/YYYY,” respectively.
[43 FR 20463, May 11, 1978; para. (b) removed and reserved, para. (c) amended, 61 FR 42790, Aug. 19, 1996, effective Sept. 23, 1996; para. (b) added, 65 FR 54604, Sept. 8, 2000, effective Nov. 7, 2000; revised, 69 FR 56481, Sept. 21, 2004, effective Oct. 21, 2004; para. (a) revised, 78 FR 62368, Oct. 21, 2013, effective Dec. 18, 2013; paras. (b) and (c) revised, paras. (d) through (j) added, 86 FR 57035, Oct. 14, 2021, effective Nov. 15, 2021]
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