USPTO Announces Updates to Rules for Applications including Nucleotide and Amino Acid Sequences, effective July 1, 2024

A final ruling has been issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) regarding applications which contain nucleotide and/or amino acid sequences. The changes are made to reflect the adoption of version 1.7 of the Standard ST.26 of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).  In 2022, the USPTO initially incorporated by reference certain provisions of the WIPO Standard ST.26.

ST.26 simplifies the process for applicants filing in multiple countries and requires the submission of single-sequence listings in eXtensible Markup Language (XML), which provides better preservation, accessibility, and sorting of the submitted sequence data for the public. Updated improvements provided by version 1.7 of ST.26 include technical terminology consistency and improved descriptions.

This final ruling will be effective on Monday, July 1, 2024 and can be found here and on the USPTO webpage.