[Patentcenter] What is a REF.OTHER reference?

[Richard Schafer]

A client received an Office Action this morning. In addition to copies of the 1449s previously submitted by the client in this application and an 892 with references cited by the examiner in the Office Action, the IFW includes a copy of a patent application publication that is not mentioned in the Office Action, not contained in the 892, and not disclosed in any 1449. There are no foreign related applications to this U.S. application, so there's no ISR or search report from any non-USPTO office. The Doc code is "REF.OTHER," which is described in the PTO's Document Description List as "Submission of US Patent, US Application documentation or International or Foreign Search Reports."


  1.  Since the reference isn't listed in either an 892, a 1449, or even mentioned in the Office Action, was it considered by the examiner? Filing an IDS just to be sure it's correctly on the record seems absurd, but I'm uncomfortable not doing one.
  2.  Any idea why the examiner would list a reference like that? There is a Search Notes page in the IFW, but there is no search data in any field, so there's not even an indication of what was searched or how.

Best regards,
Richard A. Schafer | Schafer IP Law
P.O. Box 230081 | Houston, TX 77223
M: 832.283.6564 | richard at schafer-ip.com<mailto:richard at schafer-ip.com>

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