All > Law > Intellectual Property > Patent
The date upon which duly executed application papers are received in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
- Browse Related Terms: Assignee, assignor, date of application, dedication to the public, Depositing Correspondence, Disclosure Document Program, File History, File Wrapper, Filing Date, issue date, Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP), patent application, serial number, Terminal Disclaimer
All > Law > Intellectual Property > Patent
All > Law > Intellectual Property > Patent
A statement executed in a patent application stating among other things that the applicant has made the invention described therein.
A written statement made with the understanding that willfully providing false information is punishable by fines or imprisonment or both. In the U.S., declaration may be used instead of an oath (a sworn statment) to verify that information being submitted to the USPTO is true. MPEP 602, MPEP 715, MPEP 716.
- Browse Related Terms: Admissions by Applicant, Affidavit, declaration, Deposition, Execute, Oath, Preliminary Statement, Verified Statement/Showing
Also listed in:
- All > Law > Intellectual Property
- All > Technology > Programming > Java
- All > Technology > Programming > Perl
All > Law > Intellectual Property > Patent
An express or implied surrender to the public of an actual or potential patent right. MPEP 1490, MPEP 2138.03.
- Browse Related Terms: bounty hunter, broad claim, Claim, Generic, Claim, Species, Contemporaneously witnessed, Dedication, disclaimer, specification, status
All > Law > Intellectual Property > Patent
A document signed by a patent owner filed in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office giving up all patent rights. This is generally done when the owner believes the patent is invalid.
- Browse Related Terms: Assignee, assignor, date of application, dedication to the public, Depositing Correspondence, Disclosure Document Program, File History, File Wrapper, Filing Date, issue date, Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP), patent application, serial number, Terminal Disclaimer
All > Law > Intellectual Property > Patent
Publication of the abstract of the technical disclosure of a pending patent application if the applicant waived his or her rights to an enforceable patent. The official program at the USPTO that allowed defensive publication has been replaced by the Statutory Invention Registration program. MPEP 711.06, MPEP 1101.
- Browse Related Terms: Absolute Novelty, critical date, Defensive Publication, Figure Legend, Open for Public Inspection, Printed Matter, publication, SIR, Statutory Invention Registration (SIR)
All > Law > Intellectual Property > Patent
A characteristic of a patent claim in which claim language makes the scope of the claim clear to a person skilled in the art to which the invention pertains. MPEP 2173, MPEP 2173.02, MPEP 2173.05(a).
- Browse Related Terms: Definiteness, hypothetical person skilled in the art, Level of Ordinary Skill, non obvious, Obviousness, ordinary skill in the art, Person Skilled in the Art, Routineer, Secondary Considerations, skill in the art, Unobvious
All > Law > Intellectual Property > Patent
This is a claim that makes express reference to and depends on a prior claim and, thereby, incorporates by reference all of the recitals of the prior claim. This claim must be read as if it contained its own express recitals plus the recitals of every claim or claims from which it depends. Claims that do not depend from another are referred to as independent claims.
A claim that refers back to and further limits or restrict another claim. MPEP 608.01(n).
- Browse Related Terms: abstract of the disclosure, Base Claim, Claim, Dependent, Claim, Independent, Claim, Multiple Dependent, Dependent Claim, Element of Claim, Example, Exhibit, gist of the invention, Independent Claim, multiple dependent claim, Negative Claim Limitation, Object of the Invention
Also listed in:
All > Law > Intellectual Property > Patent
Filing written papers with a patent office. MPEP 502.
- Browse Related Terms: Assignee, assignor, date of application, dedication to the public, Depositing Correspondence, Disclosure Document Program, File History, File Wrapper, Filing Date, issue date, Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP), patent application, serial number, Terminal Disclaimer
All > Law > Intellectual Property > Patent
Testimony of a witness taken under oath, reduced to writing and authenicated.
Also listed in:
All > Law > Intellectual Property > Patent
A patent that protects the visual characteristics of, or aspects displayed by, an object. MPEP 1502, MPEP 1502.01.
This type of patent covers the original and ornamental aspects of a product. The prime focus is on the overall ornamental appearance. Disclaimer: When one or more patent claims (but not all of the claims) are invalid, the patentee may make a written disclaimer of such invalid claim or claims. A disclaimer is filed in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
- Browse Related Terms: Copyright, design patent, Expiry Date, Grant, how to use, Infringe, Patent, Revocation, university research
Also listed in:
All > Law > Intellectual Property > Patent
The activity required of an inventor and his attorney that must have started just prior to the entry into the field of another "inventor" and continue until the invention is reduced to practice, either by building and testing it or filing an enabling patent application. Diligence towards the building and testing of an invention typically includes such activities as ordering parts, fabrication of a prototype or working model, testing of a prototype under the expected conditions of normal use of the invention, etc. Dilegence towards the filing of a patent application typically involves preparation of an invention disclosure, hiring a patent agent or patent attorney, with the patent agent or attorney taking up preparation of the patent application in chronological order. Diligence must be able to be proven and, in an interference proceeding, must be corraborated by a person who is not an inventor. MPEP 2138.06.
- Browse Related Terms: applicant, Completion of Invention, conception, Corroboration, Diligence, First to Invent, Indefiniteness, Inventor, Joint, Joint Invention, Non-Obviousness, Prima facie, Reduction to Practice, Actual, Reduction to Practice, Constructive, unpatentable, valid
All > Law > Intellectual Property > Patent
Making, using or selling a patented invention in the jurisdiction within which the patent is enforcable, or importing a patented invention or a product made using a patented process, during the term of the patent. MPEP 2501.
- Browse Related Terms: active inducement to infringe, claim(s), Colorable Deviation, Comprising, contributory infringement, copying, Direct Infringement, doctrine of equivalence, doctrine of equivalents, equivalents - reverse doctrine of, Infrastructure, Infringed Literally, infringement, Infringement By Equivalents, Infringement Under Doctrine of Equivalents, Literal Infringement, notice (also marking), Product By Process Claim, prosecution history estoppel, search, that which infringes if later, anticipates if earlier
All > Law > Intellectual Property > Patent
An express surrender to the public of an actual or potential patent right. An entire patent can be disclaimed, or any claim or claims in a patent or a terminal portion of the normal term of the patent. MPEP 1490, MPEP 2138.03, MPEP 706.03(u).
- Browse Related Terms: bounty hunter, broad claim, Claim, Generic, Claim, Species, Contemporaneously witnessed, Dedication, disclaimer, specification, status
Also listed in:
All > Law > Intellectual Property > Patent
Communication to another of how to make and how to use an invention to the extent necessary for the disclosure to meet its purpose. In the U.S, the disclosure of a patent application must be sufficient for a person who is skilled in the art to which the invention pertains to (1) understand what is being claimed (the description requirement) and (2) to enable the person to make and use the invention (the enablement requirement). Also, in the U.S., the best mode of the invention must be disclosed. MPEP 608, MPEP 608.01, MPEP 2161, MPEP 2162.
A statement indicating the character of an invention, its construction, operation, and application. A full disclosure is a statement sufficient to indicate, to a person skilled in the art, the necessary information to practice an invention.
This can refer to either an invention disclosure that is not in a patent application but is an oral or written communication of a development or it can refer to portions of a patent application.
Also listed in:
All > Law > Intellectual Property > Patent
A program of the USPTO wherein, for a small fee, the USPTO will maintain a written document disclosing an invention and signed by the inventor in confidence for a period of two years as evidence of the date of conception. Diligent efforts to reduce the invention to practice must still occur from a period before the entry of another inventor into the field until the invention is completed. Many patent agents and patent attorneys recommend that it is better to disclose an invention in confidence to a person who is not an inventor in writing and then have the person sign and date the dislcosure indicating that he/she has "read, discussed and understood the disclosure." MPEP 1706.
- Browse Related Terms: Assignee, assignor, date of application, dedication to the public, Depositing Correspondence, Disclosure Document Program, File History, File Wrapper, Filing Date, issue date, Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP), patent application, serial number, Terminal Disclaimer
All > Law > Intellectual Property > Patent
An invention or, in litigation or interference proceedings, the process of retrieving pretinent information from the opponent's records under a court order.
Also listed in:
- All > Law
- All > Law > Bankruptcy
- All > Law > Common Legal Terms
- All > Law > Court
- All > Law > Criminal Law
- All > Law > Divorce
- All > Law > E-Discovery
- All > Technology > Records Management
All > Law > Intellectual Property > Patent
A term used in some countries, including the U.S., to mean that an application has been abandoned, denied (rejected) or allowed (granted). The term is also used to quantify Examiner productivity, i.e., to "count" Examiner actions. MPEP 1705.
Also listed in:
All > Law > Intellectual Property > Patent
Also listed in:
All > Law > Intellectual Property > Patent
A divisional application is a separate patent application carved out of a prior pending application and discloses and claims only subject matter originally claimed in the prior application. The divisional application is entitled to a priority or filing date based upon the application from which it has been divided.
Only one invention may be claimed in a patent application. If the patent examiner determines that an application contains more than one invention the applicant will be asked to "elect" which invention will be prosecuted. The remaining invention(s) may then be prosecuted by means of a divisional application.
- Browse Related Terms: CIP, continuation, Continuation Application, Continuation-In-Part Application, Copending Application or Copendency, Division, divisional application, new matter, Patent Marking, Pending Patent Application
Also listed in: