Sequence Listings

What is a Sequence Listing?

 
 

A sequence listing is an organized, stylized list of biological sequences presented in —or part of— a patent application. Amino acids, DNA or RNA of certain lengths are required to be presented in a Sequence Listing complying with the patent rules and laws of the Patent Office at which the application is filed.

Why is Align better for Sequence Listings?

 

Align Sequences, LLC creates your Sequence Listing using a proprietary suite of custom designed software purposely written for creating sequences. This suite helps our experts create Sequence Listings more accurately, faster and therefore cheaper than tradition methods and industry standards. The assurance our software provides allows us to guarantee our Sequence Listings are ready to be submitted to the Patent Office and will pass their rigorous review.

Qualifying Sequences

 

Under the current international standard (ST.25) any patent application which discloses an RNA or DNA sequence that comprises at least ten (10) specific, unbranched bases and/or a linear sequence of at least four (4) amino acids must report all qualifying sequences in Sequence Listing.

Requirements

 

If a patent application discloses an unbranched sequence of ten or more DNA or RNA bases and/or a sequence of four or more connected amino acids, all sequences of the above minimum length must be included in a compliant Sequence Listing. Applications before the US Patent Office submitted with biosequences meeting the qualification, but lacking a Listing will receive a Notice to Comply With Requirements For Patent Applications Containing Nucleotide Sequence And/Or Amino Acid Sequence Disclosures.

Standards

 

The current standard for Sequence Listing is ST.26 commonly referred to as ‘XML’., effective July 1, 2022. The previous standards were ST.25 commonly referred to as ‘Numeric’ and ST.23 & ST.24 commonly referred to as ‘Alpha’. Align Sequences, LLC is experienced in preparing Sequence Listings in the ST.26 Standard. Any Application filed after July 1, 2022 in PCT countries must comply with ST.26, we can assist you with this requirement. Certain Applications with earlier filing dates may have the option to file ST.25 formatted Sequence Listings. AlignSequences can prepare either format. Likewise, Align Sequences, LLC is able to read sequence from —and even produce— Alpha format for Clients with legacy applications, or particular jurisdictional requirements.

Identifiers

 

A patent application which comprises sequence listings must identify all qualifying sequence disclosed in the specification, abstract drawings or claims with a Sequence Identifying Number corresponding to the sequence number in the sequence listing for that sequence. Sequence Identifying Numbers are often abbreviated Seq. Id. No.