Organizing the File System

• 1). Sort out all the documents according to the application number. All your documents for continuations, divisionals, and foreign applications will be in separate piles because they have different application numbers.
  
  
• 2). Separate official correspondence that you have submitted to the PTO from correspondence generated by the PTO. Put your personal notes into a third category. For every application that has been submitted, you should have three separate piles of documents.
  
  
• 3). Organize the documents in each of the three categories by date. Make sure that the newest documents are on top. Be sure to keep your three piles separate.
  
  
• 4). Open a patent folder. These folders are commonly used by law firms. They are also called IP folders, or patent trifolds. You will see three panels with two clips on top of each panel. Punch holes on the top of your documents so they can fit into the clips on the folders.
  
  
• 5). Start putting your documents into the folder. All of the material for a single application will go into a single folder. Correspondence from PTO goes on the clips on the left hand side of the trifold. Correspondence to the PTO goes on the right hand side. Your notes go in the center.
  
  Fold up the bottom flap over your notes, and close the two sides. Mark the folder with the appropriate docket number.
  
  If you have done this successfully, you should be able to open a folder and see which documents have been most recently sent or received on either side of the trifold,