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Incomplete application An incomplete application is an application that is missing necessary information required to be present in a patent application. Typically, a patent requires a written specification, at least one claim, an abstract, drawings (as applicable), an oath or declaration that the inventor is the true inventor and a paid filing fee. Provisional applications do not require the claim.

Independent claims An independent claim is claim that does not rely or reference another claim.

Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) An IDS is submitted to the United States Patent Office and discloses material prior-art references.

Infringement action An infringement action is filed when a person has violated intellectual property rights by making, selling (or offering for sale), importing or using the article of manufacture or process that is protected by a patent; by using the trademark of another; or by copying a book, poem, video, photograph, music, software or the like that is the copyrighted work of another.

Intellectual property Intellectual property refers to tangibles and intangibles that have value that are created by human thought.

Interferences Interferences occur between two pending applications or between a pending application and an issued unexpired patent, to determine who is the first inventor, and thus the owner of patent rights to the invention.

International applications An international application is a patent application filed with a patent office in a country other than the U.S. Also, a Patent Cooperation Treaty is considered an international application.

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