The red P icon on results lists of patent searches of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) website has been a quick and easy way of generating a list of patents with a particular class and subclass. Now another convenient feature has been added, this time to make searching patent applications easier. If a searcher is viewing the html version of a class schedule, he or she may now click on the blue "A" icon next to a particular subclass in order to create a results list of all published patent applications for that class/subclass.
Since applications are public disclosures of inventions, they are relevant to prior art searching even if an application is eventually rejected for a patent. More background information about patent applications is available at http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/doc/general/index.html#pub .
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