Eric, Some feedback on the use case for submitting prior art. Submit Prior Art V3 Under 1, where the user selects which claims for which the prior art is relevant, the graphical display should differentiate between independent claims and dependent claims. The primary focus should be on the independent claims. I recommend indenting the checkboxes to make it easier to see the independent claims in your checkbox format. In the issues box, the following issues are raised: a.Who writes the brief description of the patent application? You should use the patent application abstract for the brief description. The abstract is typically 150 words or less. b.What is the complete list of sections that can appear in patent applications? The relevant sections are the specfication, the drawings, the claims, and the abstract. The specification is typically sub-divided in parts (background, summary of the invention, detailed description, etc.). c. If we search for matching prior art, what happens if the only difference is the list of claims? Do we create a new prior art reference? If the only difference between two pieces of prior art is in the claims, then that means the two specifications are identical. If the two specifications are identical, you would use the document with the earlier priority date as a prior art reference. Tom
