We prove that potential conservation laws have characteristics depending only on local variables if and only if they are induced by local conservation laws. Therefore, characteristics of pure potential conservation laws have to essentially depend on potential variables. This statement provides a significant generalization of results of the recent paper by Bluman, Cheviakov and Ivanova [J. Math. Phys., 2006, V.47, 113505]. Moreover, we present extensions to gauged potential systems, Abelian and general coverings and general foliated systems. An example illustrating possible applications of this result is considered.
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