Filing an Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) When filing a patent application, you have a legal obligation to disclose all information known to you that is material to the “patentability” of your device, product, idea, etc. These disclosures must be formally conveyed to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in accordance with 35 C.F.R. §1.56. You may be asking, “what exactly constitutes material information for my patent application?” Well, the governing standard is that any information that a reasonable patent application examiner would consider important in assessing whether to grant the application is deemed to be material. It is also…















