What should be included in the incorporation-by-reference statement in a patent application?

The incorporation-by-reference statement in a patent application should include information about specific types of electronic documents that are to become part of the permanent USPTO records. According to 37 CFR 1.77(b)(5), this statement should identify:

• The names of each file
• The date of creation of each file
• The size of each file in bytes

This applies to the following document types:

• A ‘Computer Program Listing Appendix’
• A ‘Sequence Listing’
• ‘Large Tables’
• An XML file for a ‘Sequence Listing XML’

The MPEP states, The specification is required to include an incorporation-by-reference of electronic documents that are to become part of the permanent United States Patent and Trademark Office records in the file of a patent application.

To learn more:

• incorporation-by-reference
• electronic documents
• patent application
• USPTO records