The filing of an international application is the second step in the PCT patent prosecution process.
The basic structure of a U.S. patent application is similar to the structure of a PCT patent application. The structure of a U.S. patent application specification includes twelve basic parts:
1. Title
2. Cross-references to related applications
3. A statement or statements regarding federally sponsored research or development
4. The names of the parties to a joint research agreement
5. References to a "Sequence Listing," a table or a computer program listing appendix
6. The background of the invention
7. A brief summary of the invention
8. A brief description of the several views of the drawing
9. A detailed description of the invention
10. At least one claim
11. An abstract of the disclosure
12. A sequence listing
Next time, we will conclude our discussion of PCT patent applications.