Patent Terms Glossary

PAC

Definition:
Patent Assistance Center (prior), now the Inventors Assistance Center or IAC.

CIP

Definition:
Continuation-in-Part - an application filed during the lifetime of an earlier nonprovisional application, repeating some substantial portion or all of the earlier nonprovisional application.

PAIR

Definition:
Patent Application Information Retrieval - provides secure access for customers who want to view current patent application status electronically via the Internet.

Utility Patent

Definition:
May be granted to anyone who invents or discovers any new, useful, and nonobvious process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof.

Disclosure Document

Definition:
A document disclosing an invention, and signed by the inventor or inventors, that is forwarded to the USPTO only as evidence of the date of conception of the invention.

NPL

Definition:
Non Patent Literature -- documents and publications that are not patents or published patent applications but are cited as references for being relevant in a patent prosecution.

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