Federal Register - Statutory Invention Registration

[Federal Register: October 7, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 195)]
[Notices][Page 58572-58573]

Statutory Invention Registration
ACTION: Proposed collection; comment request.
The complete comment request is available at:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=2008_register&docid=fr07oc08-56

I. Abstract

A statutory invention registration is not a patent. It has the defensive attributes of a patent but does not have the enforceable attributes of a patent. In other words, a person occasionally invents something solely for personal use (not for production or sale) and does not want to go through the effort and expense of obtaining a patent on the invention. At the same time, the inventor wants to prevent someone else from later obtaining a patent on a like invention. In that situation, the inventor can register a statutory invention and have it published. Once published, it cannot be claimed by another person.

35 U.S.C. 157 authorizes the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to publish a statutory invention registration containing the specifications and drawings of a regularly filed application for a patent without examination, providing the patentee meets all the requirements for printing, waives the right to receive a patent on the invention within a certain period of time prescribed by the USPTO, and pays all application, publication and other processing fees.

The USPTO administers 35 U.S.C. 157 through 37 CFR 1.293-1.297. Under these rules, an applicant for an original patent may request, at any time during the pendency of the application, that the specifications and drawings be published as a statutory invention registration. Any request for a statutory invention registration may be examined to determine if all the conditions have been met, if the subject matter of the application is appropriate for publication, and if the requirements for publication are met.

The public may petition the USPTO to review rejection decisions within one month or other such time as is set forth in the decision refusing publication. The public may also petition the USPTO to withdraw a request to publish a statutory invention registration prior to the date of the notice of the intent to publish.

If the request for a statutory invention registration is approved,a notice to that effect will be published in the Official Gazette of the USPTO. Each statutory invention registration that is published will include a statement relating to the attributes of a statutory invention registration.

The public uses form PTO/SB/94, Request for Statutory Invention Registration, to request and authorize publication of a regularly-filed patent application as a statutory invention registration, to waive the right to receive a United States patent on the same invention claimed in the identified patent application, to agree that the waiver will be effective upon publication of the statutory invention registration, and to state that the identified patent application complies with the requirements for printing. No forms are associated with the petition for a review of the refusal to publish a statutory invention registration or the petition to withdraw the request for publication of a statutory invention registration.