2.1.7.7 Unavailable or Untranslatable Citations

Date Published

Occasionally a relevant citation (for example a document cited in the ISR or other FER) may be unavailable at the time of examination.  Similarly, a citation may be in a language for which there are no qualified translators available in the Office (see 1.10.5 Examiners with Foreign Language Capabilities), or a machine based translation is either unavailable or insufficient. In these situations examiners should include a note in their report drawing the applicant’s attention to the existence of the particular citation. The note should indicate that the cited material is relevant to the present claims, however the document could not be obtained, or an English version could not be obtained, at the time of examination. PERP codes [F111] and [F120] provide examples of text for such notes.