RA 8800 impliedly provides for the disclosure of information to certain parties that may have an interest in the proceedings. The intent is to make as much information available as possible so that all parties can understand the reasons and basis of facts upon which decision are made, while still guaranteeing the protection of confidential information. Thus, it is required that information submitted is to be clearly marked either “confidential” or “non-confidential”, and the applicant must provide two (2) copies of a non-confidential summary of any confidential information supplied and/or submitted.

The non-confidential summary must be in sufficient detail to permit a reasonable understanding of confidential information. Failure to provide a non-confidential summary may result on the information being disregarded. The non-confidential version of the submission is placed on a public file and made available to interested parties. This allows claims to be considered by the other parties who have a right to see the information relevant to the presentations of their case. Similar arrangements apply to submissions made by other interested parties.

The recommended method of satisfying the requirement for confidential and non-confidential copies is to keep the body of the application non-confidential and to place confidential data in appendices.