35 USC § 111 - Application

There are 2 Updates Pending. Select the tab below to view.

USCPrelim is a preliminary release and may be subject to further revision before it is released again as a final version.

Current through Pub. L. 112-283. (See Public Laws for the current Congress.)

(a) In General.—

(1) Written application.— An application for patent shall be made, or authorized to be made, by the inventor, except as otherwise provided in this title, in writing to the Director.

(2) Contents.— Such application shall include—

(A) a specification as prescribed by section 112;

(B) a drawing as prescribed by section 113; and

(3) Fee and oath or declaration.— The application must be accompanied by the fee required by law. The fee and oath or declaration may be submitted after the specification and any required drawing are submitted, within such period and under such conditions, including the payment of a surcharge, as may be prescribed by the Director.

(4) Failure to submit.— Upon failure to submit the fee and oath or declaration within such prescribed period, the application shall be regarded as abandoned, unless it is shown to the satisfaction of the Director that the delay in submitting the fee and oath or declaration was unavoidable or unintentional. The filing date of an application shall be the date on which the specification and any required drawing are received in the Patent and Trademark Office.

(b) Provisional Application.—

(1) Authorization.— A provisional application for patent shall be made or authorized to be made by the inventor, except as otherwise provided in this title, in writing to the Director. Such application shall include—

(A) a specification as prescribed by section 112 (a); and

(B) a drawing as prescribed by section 113.

(2) Claim.— A claim, as required by subsections (b) through (e) ofsection 112, shall not be required in a provisional application.

(3) Fee.—

(A) The application must be accompanied by the fee required by law.

(B) The fee may be submitted after the specification and any required drawing are submitted, within such period and under such conditions, including the payment of a surcharge, as may be prescribed by the Director.

(C) Upon failure to submit the fee within such prescribed period, the application shall be regarded as abandoned, unless it is shown to the satisfaction of the Director that the delay in submitting the fee was unavoidable or unintentional.

(4) Filing date.— The filing date of a provisional application shall be the date on which the specification and any required drawing are received in the Patent and Trademark Office.

(5) Abandonment.— Notwithstanding the absence of a claim, upon timely request and as prescribed by the Director, a provisional application may be treated as an application filed under subsection (a). Subject to section 119 (e)(3), if no such request is made, the provisional application shall be regarded as abandoned 12 months after the filing date of such application and shall not be subject to revival after such 12-month period.

(6) Other basis for provisional application.— Subject to all the conditions in this subsection and section 119 (e), and as prescribed by the Director, an application for patent filed under subsection (a) may be treated as a provisional application for patent.

(7) No right of priority or benefit of earliest filing date.— A provisional application shall not be entitled to the right of priority of any other application under section 119 or 365 (a) or to the benefit of an earlier filing date in the United States under section 120, 121, or 365 (c).

(8) Applicable provisions.— The provisions of this title relating to applications for patent shall apply to provisional applications for patent, except as otherwise provided, and except that provisional applications for patent shall not be subject to sections 131 and 135.

prev | next

(a) In General.—

(1) Written application.— An application for patent shall be made, or authorized to be made, by the inventor, except as otherwise provided in this title, in writing to the Director.

(2) Contents.— Such application shall include—

(A) a specification as prescribed by section 112 of this title;

(B) a drawing as prescribed by section 113 of this title; and

(3) Fee and oath.— The application must be accompanied by the fee required by law. The fee and oath may be submitted after the specification and any required drawing are submitted, within such period and under such conditions, including the payment of a surcharge, as may be prescribed by the Director.

(4) Failure to submit.— Upon failure to submit the fee and oath within such prescribed period, the application shall be regarded as abandoned, unless it is shown to the satisfaction of the Director that the delay in submitting the fee and oath was unavoidable or unintentional. The filing date of an application shall be the date on which the specification and any required drawing are received in the Patent and Trademark Office.

(b) Provisional Application.—

(A) a specification as prescribed by the first paragraph of section 112 of this title; and

(B) a drawing as prescribed by section 113 of this title.

(2) Claim.— A claim, as required by the second through fifth paragraphs of section 112, shall not be required in a provisional application.

(3) Fee.—

(A) The application must be accompanied by the fee required by law.

(4) Filing date.— The filing date of a provisional application shall be the date on which the specification and any required drawing are received in the Patent and Trademark Office.

(5) Abandonment.— Notwithstanding the absence of a claim, upon timely request and as prescribed by the Director, a provisional application may be treated as an application filed under subsection (a). Subject to section 119 (e)(3) of this title, if no such request is made, the provisional application shall be regarded as abandoned 12 months after the filing date of such application and shall not be subject to revival after such 12-month period.

(6) Other basis for provisional application.— Subject to all the conditions in this subsection and section 119 (e) of this title, and as prescribed by the Director, an application for patent filed under subsection (a) may be treated as a provisional application for patent.

(7) No right of priority or benefit of earliest filing date.— A provisional application shall not be entitled to the right of priority of any other application under section 119 or 365 (a) of this title or to the benefit of an earlier filing date in the United States under section 120, 121, or 365 (c) of this title.

Source

(July 19, 1952, ch. 950, 66 Stat. 798; Pub. L. 97–247, § 5,Aug. 27, 1982, 96 Stat. 319; Pub. L. 103–465, title V, § 532(b)(3),Dec. 8, 1994, 108 Stat. 4986; Pub. L. 106–113, div. B, § 1000(a)(9) [title IV, §§ 4732(a)(10)(A), 4801(a)], Nov. 29, 1999, 113 Stat. 1536, 1501A–582, 1501A–588; Pub. L. 107–273, div. C, title III, § 13206(b)(1)(B),Nov. 2, 2002, 116 Stat. 1906; Pub. L. 112–29, §§ 3(e)(2), 4 (a)(3), (d), 20(j),Sept. 16, 2011, 125 Stat. 287, 295, 296, 335.)

Amendment of Section

Pub. L. 112–29, § 20(j), (l),Sept. 16, 2011, 125 Stat. 335, provided that, effective upon the expiration of the 1-year period beginning on Sept. 16, 2011, and applicable to proceedings commenced on or after that effective date, this section is amended by striking “of this title” each place that term appears except the first instance of the use of such term in subsection (b)(8). See 2011 Amendment notes below. Pub. L. 112–29, § 4(a)(3), (d), (e),Sept. 16, 2011, 125 Stat. 295–297, provided that, effective upon the expiration of the 1-year period beginning on Sept. 16, 2011, and applicable to any patent application that is filed on or after that effective date, this section is amended: (1) in subsection (a)— (A) in paragraph (2)(C), by striking “by the applicant” and inserting “or declaration”; (B) in the heading for paragraph (3), by inserting “or declaration” after “and oath”; and (C) by inserting “or declaration” after “and oath” each place it appears; and (2) in subsection (b)— (A) in paragraph (1)(A), by striking “the first paragraph of section 112 of this title” and inserting “section 112 (a)”; and (B) in paragraph (2), by striking “the second through fifth paragraphs of section 112,” and inserting “subsections (b) through (e) ofsection 112,”. See 2011 Amendment notes below. Pub. L. 112–29, § 3(e)(2), (3),Sept. 16, 2011, 125 Stat. 287, 288, provided that, effective upon the expiration of the 18-month period beginning on Sept. 16, 2011, and applicable to any request for a statutory invention registration filed on or after that effective date, subsection (b)(8) of this section is amended by striking “sections 115, 131, 135, and 157” and inserting “sections 131 and 135”. See 2011 Amendment note below.

Historical and Revision Notes

Based on Title 35, U.S.C., 1946 ed., § 33 (R.S. 4888, amended (1) Mar. 3, 1915, ch. 94, § 1,38 Stat. 958; (2) May 23, 1930, ch. 312, § 2,46 Stat. 376).

The corresponding section of existing statute is divided into an introductory section relating to the application generally (this section) and a section on the specification (sec. 112).

The parts of the application are specified and the requirement for signature is placed in this general section so as to insure that only one signature will suffice.

Amendments

2011—Subsec. (a)(2)(A). Pub. L. 112–29, § 20(j), struck out “of this title” after “112”.

Subsec. (a)(2)(B). Pub. L. 112–29, § 20(j), struck out “of this title” after “113”.

Subsec. (a)(2)(C). Pub. L. 112–29, § 20(j), struck out “of this title” after “115”.

Pub. L. 112–29, § 4(a)(3)(A), substituted “or declaration” for “by the applicant”.

Subsec. (a)(3). Pub. L. 112–29, § 4(a)(3)(B), (C), inserted “or declaration” after “and oath” in heading and text.

Subsec. (a)(4). Pub. L. 112–29, § 4(a)(3)(C), inserted “or declaration” after “and oath” in two places.

Subsec. (b)(1)(A). Pub. L. 112–29, § 4(d)(1), substituted “section 112 (a)” for “the first paragraph of section 112 of this title”.

Subsec. (b)(1)(B). Pub. L. 112–29, § 20(j), struck out “of this title” after “113”.

Subsec. (b)(2). Pub. L. 112–29, § 4(d)(2), substituted “subsections (b) through (e) ofsection 112,” for “the second through fifth paragraphs of section 112,”.

Subsec. (b)(5). Pub. L. 112–29, § 20(j), struck out “of this title” after “119(e)(3)”.

Subsec. (b)(6). Pub. L. 112–29, § 20(j), struck out “of this title” after “119(e)”.

Subsec. (b)(7). Pub. L. 112–29, § 20(j), struck out “of this title” after “365(a)” and after “365(c)”.

Subsec. (b)(8). Pub. L. 112–29, § 20(j), struck out “of this title” before period at end.

Pub. L. 112–29, § 3(e)(2), substituted “sections 131 and 135” for “sections 115, 131, 135, and 157”.

2002—Subsecs. (a)(1), (3), (4), (b)(1), (3)(B), (C), (6). Pub. L. 107–273made technical correction to directory language of Pub. L. 106–113, § 1000(a)(9) [title IV, § 4732(a)(10)(A)]. See 1999 Amendment notes below.

1999—Subsecs. (a)(1), (3), (4), (b)(1), (3)(B), (C). Pub. L. 106–113, § 1000(a)(9) [title IV, § 4732(a)(10)(A)], as amended by Pub. L. 107–273, substituted “Director” for “Commissioner”.

Subsec. (b)(5). Pub. L. 106–113, § 1000(a)(9) [title IV, § 4801(a)], amended heading and text of par. (5) generally. Prior to amendment, text read as follows: “The provisional application shall be regarded as abandoned 12 months after the filing date of such application and shall not be subject to revival thereafter.”

Subsec. (b)(6). Pub. L. 106–113, § 1000(a)(9) [title IV, § 4732(a)(10)(A)], as amended by Pub. L. 107–273, substituted “Director” for “Commissioner”.

1994—Pub. L. 103–465amended section generally. Prior to amendment, section read as follows: “Application for patent shall be made, or authorized to be made, by the inventor, except as otherwise provided in this title, in writing to the Commissioner. Such application shall include (1) a specification as prescribed by section 112 of this title; (2) a drawing as prescribed by section 113 of this title; and (3) an oath by the applicant as prescribed by section 115 of this title. The application must be accompanied by the fee required by law. The fee and oath may be submitted after the specification and any required drawing are submitted, within such period and under such conditions, including the payment of a surcharge, as may be prescribed by the Commissioner. Upon failure to submit the fee and oath within such prescribed period, the application shall be regarded as abandoned, unless it is shown to the satisfaction of the Commissioner that the delay in submitting the fee and oath was unavoidable. The filing date of an application shall be the date on which the specification and any required drawing are received in the Patent and Trademark Office.”

1982—Pub. L. 97–247inserted “, or authorized to be made,” after “shall be made”, struck out the colon after “shall include”, struck out “signed by the applicant and” after “The application”, and inserted provisions that the fee and oath may be submitted after the specification and any required drawing are submitted, within such period and under such conditions, including the payment of a surcharge, as may be prescribed by the Commissioner, that upon failure to submit the fee and oath within such prescribed period, the application shall be regarded as abandoned, unless it is shown to the satisfaction of the Commissioner that the delay in submitting the fee and oath was unavoidable, and that the filing date of an application shall be the date on which the specification and any required drawing are received in the Patent and Trademark Office.

Effective Date of 2011 Amendment

Pub. L. 112–29, § 3(e)(3),Sept. 16, 2011, 125 Stat. 288, provided that: “The amendments made by this subsection [amending this section and repealing section 157 of this title] shall take effect upon the expiration of the 18-month period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act [Sept. 16, 2011], and shall apply to any request for a statutory invention registration filed on or after that effective date.”

Pub. L. 112–29, § 4(e),Sept. 16, 2011, 125 Stat. 297, provided that: “The amendments made by this section [amending this section and sections 112, 115, 118, 121, and 251 of this title] shall take effect upon the expiration of the 1-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act [Sept. 16, 2011] and shall apply to any patent application that is filed on or after that effective date.”

Amendment by section 20(j) ofPub. L. 112–29effective upon the expiration of the 1-year period beginning on Sept. 16, 2011, and applicable to proceedings commenced on or after that effective date, see section 20(l) ofPub. L. 112–29, set out as a note under section 2 of this title.

Effective Date of 1999 Amendment

Amendment by section 1000(a)(9) [title IV, § 4732(a)(10)(A)] of Pub. L. 106–113effective 4 months after Nov. 29, 1999, see section 1000(a)(9) [title IV, § 4731] of Pub. L. 106–113, set out as a note under section 1 of this title.

Amendment by section 1000(a)(9) [title IV, § 4801(a)] of Pub. L. 106–113effective Nov. 29, 1999, and applicable to any provisional application filed on or after June 8, 1995, see section 1000(a)(9) [title IV, § 4801(d)] of Pub. L. 106–113, set out as a note under section 119 of this title.

Effective Date of 1994 Amendment

Amendment by Pub. L. 103–465effective 6 months after Dec. 8, 1994, and applicable to all patent applications filed in the United States on or after that effective date, with provisions relating to earliest filed patent application, see section 534(b)(1), (3) ofPub. L. 103–465, set out as a note under section 154 of this title.

Effective Date of 1982 Amendment

Amendment by Pub. L. 97–247effective six months after Aug. 27, 1982, see section 17(c) ofPub. L. 97–247, set out as an Effective Date note under section 294 of this title.

Emergency Relief From Postal Situation Affecting Patent, Trademark, and Other Federal Cases

Pub. L. 92–34, June 30, 1971, 85 Stat. 87, provided that a patent or trademark application would be considered filed in the United States Patent Office on the date that it would have been received by the Patent Office except for the delay caused by emergency situation affecting postal service from Mar. 18, 1970 to Mar. 30, 1970, if a claim was made.

The table below lists the classification updates, since Jan. 3, 2012, for this section. Updates to a broader range of sections may be found at the update page for containing chapter, title, etc.

The most recent Classification Table update that we have noticed was Friday, May 3, 2013

An empty table indicates that we see no relevant changes listed in the classification tables. If you suspect that our system may be missing something, please double-check with the Office of the Law Revision Counsel.

How To Use

Multiple entries for a section are listed most recent first, within the section.

The Session Year indicates which session of Congress was responsible for the changes classified. The Congress number forms the first part of the Public Law number; each Congress has two sessions.

Abbreviations used in the Description of Change column:

An empty field implies a standard amendment.
"new" means a new section or new note, or all new text of an existing section or note.
"nt" means note.
"nt [tbl]" means note [table].
"prec" means preceding.
"fr" means a transfer from another section.
"to" means a transfer to another section.
"omitted" means the section is omitted.
"repealed" means the section is repealed.
"nt ed change" and "ed change" - See the Editorial Classification Change Table [pdf].

The Public Law field is linked to the development of the law in the Thomas system at the Library of Congress.

The Statutes at Large field is linked to the text of the law, in the context of its volume of the Statutes at Large, at the Government Printing Office. Please note that it takes a while for these pages to get posted, so for very recent legislation, you need to look at the "enrolled" version at the Thomas site.

The Statutes at Large references have been rendered in the format used as page numbers in the Public Law web pages to which we link, to facilitate copy-paste into browser "find on this (web) page" tools. We are still working on a more direct link facility.

For serious comparison work, we suggest copying all or a portion of the Public Law text into your favorite text editor, for convenient content traversal and window control.

Sections with change type "new" are a special case, still under development. All are now listed, at the title level only.

You will find that occassionally a specific update you notice in a Public Law listed in a classification table will already have made it into the Code. We assume this is an artifact of the LRC edit process. The LII does not edit the LRC content.

top

General Reference

Refer to the LRC (Law Revision Council) for explanations about the US Code from the folks who put it all together.

You can look for information about what it is and is not, which titles are positive law, the schedule of Supplements, etc. Under download you can find the source data we use here (GPO locator files), as well as, PDF files that look just like the paper books (these may be rather large).

Refer to the Thomas site for changes that have not yet made it into the classification tables.

35 USC	Description of Change	Session Year	Public Law	Statutes at Large
§ 111		2012	112-211 [Sec.] 201(a)	126 Stat. 1533
§ 111		2012	112-211 [Sec.] 102(3)	126 Stat. 1531

This is a list of parts within the Code of Federal Regulations for which this US Code section provides rulemaking authority.

This list is taken from the Parallel Table of Authorities and Rules provided by GPO [Government Printing Office].

It is not guaranteed to be accurate or up-to-date, though we do refresh the database weekly. More limitations on accuracy are described at the GPO site.

LII has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references LII.

35 USC § 111 - Application

U.S. Code Toolbox

Law about... Articles from Wex

Find a Lawyer

Get Involved