IDS (Information disclosure Statement) means that the applicant shall provide the relevant known prior arts to the Patent Office.

It is thus required that the applicant cannot hide the prior arts before the patent office, once conceal, in the later infringement litigation, the applicant and inventor may be accused of violating the principle of good faith, if deemed to deliberately conceal important information, not only the patent may be invalid, and the inventor may be suspected of perjury. Therefore, the relevant patent documents retrieved by the so-called "novelty search" conducted before the China patent application are obliged to be provided to the US Patent Office with IDS when applying for the US patent, otherwise even if the patent right is obtained, it will bring trouble in the subsequent exercise of the rights。