(c) Each patent cover sheet required by §3.28 seeking to record a governmental interest as provided by §3.11(b) must:

(1) Indicate that the document is to be recorded on the Governmental Register, and, if applicable, that the document is to be recorded on the Secret Register (see §3.58); and

(2) Indicate, if applicable, that the document to be recorded is not a document affecting title (see §3.41(b)).

[57 FR 29642, July 6, 1992, as amended at 62 FR 53202, Oct. 10, 1997]

$3.34 Correction of cover sheet errors. (a) An error in a cover sheet recorded pursuant to §3.11 will be corrected only if:

(1) The error is apparent when the cover sheet is compared with the recorded document to which it pertains, and

(2) A corrected cover sheet is filed for recordation.

(b) The corrected cover sheet must be accompanied by the originally recorded document or a copy of the originally recorded document and by the recording fee as set forth in §3.41.

FEES

§3.41 Recording fees.

(a) All requests to record documents must be accompanied by the appropriate fee. Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section, a fee is required for each application, patent and registration against which the document is recorded as identified in the cover sheet. The recording fee is set in §1.21(h) of this chapter for patents and in §2.6(q) of this chapter for trademarks.

(b) No fee is required for each patent application and patent against which a document required by Executive Order 9424 is to be filed if:

(1) The document does not affect title and is so identified in the cover sheet (see §3.31(c)(2)); and

(2) The document and cover sheet are mailed to the Office in compliance with §3.27(b).

[62 FR 53202, Oct. 10, 1997]

DATE AND EFFECT OF RECORDING

§3.51 Recording date.

The date of recording of a document is the date the document meeting the requirements for recording set forth in this part is filed in the Office. A document which does not comply with the identification requirements of §3.21 will not be recorded. Documents not meeting the other requirements for recording, for example, a document submitted without a completed cover sheet or without the required fee, will be returned for correction to the sender where a correspondence address is available. The returned papers, stamped with the original date of receipt by the Office, will be accompanied by a letter which will indicate that if the returned papers are corrected and resubmitted to the Office within the time specified in the letter, the Office will consider the original date of filing of the papers as the date of recording of the document. The procedure set forth in §1.8 or §1.10 of this chapter may be used for resubmissions of returned papers to have the benefit of the date of deposit in the United States Postal Service. If the returned papers are not corrected and resubmitted within the specified period, the date of filing of the corrected papers will be considered to be the date of recording of the document. The specified period to resubmit the returned papers will not be extended.

[62 FR 53203, Oct. 10, 1997]

§3.54 Effect of recording.

The recording of a document pursuant to §3.11 is not a determination by the Office of the validity of the document or the effect that document has on the title to an application, a patent, or a registration. When necessary, the Office will determine what effect a document has, including whether a party has the authority to take an action in a matter pending before the Office.

§3.56 Conditional assignments.

Assignments which are made conditional on the performance of certain acts or events, such as the payment of money or other condition subsequent, if recorded in the Office, are regarded

179-137 0—98———7

as absolute assignments for Office purposes until cancelled with the written consent of all parties or by the decree of a court of competent jurisdiction. The Office does not determine whether such conditions have been fulfilled.

§3.58 Governmental registers.

(a) The Office will maintain a Departmental Register to record governmental interests required to be recorded by Executive Order 9424. This Departmental Register will not be open to public inspection but will be available for examination and inspection by duly authorized representatives of the Government. Governmental interests recorded on the Departmental Register will be available for public inspection as provided in §1.12.

(b) The Office will maintain a Secret Register to record governmental interests required to be recorded by Executive Order 9424. Any instrument to be recorded will be placed on this Secret Register at the request of the department or agency submitting the same. No information will be given concerning any instrument in such record or register, and no examination or inspection thereof or of the index thereto will be permitted, except on the written authority of the head of the department or agency which submitted the instrument and requested secrecy, and the approval of such authority by the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks. No instrument or record other than the one specified may be examined, and the examination must take place in the presence of a designated official of the Patent and Trademark Office. When the department or agency which submitted an instrument no longer requires secrecy with respect to that instrument, it must be recorded anew in the Departmental Register.

[62 FR 53203, Oct. 10, 1997]

DOMESTIC REPRESENTATIVE

§ 3.61 Domestic representative.

If the assignee of a trademark application or registration is not domiciled in the United States, the assignee must designate, in writing to the Office, a domestic representative. An assignee of a patent application or patent may designate a domestic representative if the

assignee is not residing in the United States. The designation shall state the name and address of a person residing within the United States on whom may be served process or notice of proceedings affecting the application, patent or registration or rights thereunder. ACTION TAKEN BY ASSIGNEE

§3.71 Prosecution by assignee.

The assignee of record of the entire right, title and interest in an application for patent is entitled to conduct the prosecution of the patent application to the exclusion of the named inventor or previous assignee. The assignee of a registered trademark or a trademark for which an application to register has been filed is entitled to conduct the prosecution of the trademark application or registration to the exclusion of the original applicant or previous assignee.

§ 3.73 Establishing right of assignee to take action.

(a) The inventor is presumed to be the owner of a patent application, and any patent that may issue therefrom, unless there is an assignment. The original applicant is presumed to be the owner of a trademark application unless there is an assignment.

(b) When an assignee seeks to take action in a matter before the Office with respect to a patent application, trademark application, patent, registration, or reexamination proceeding, the assignee must establish its ownership of the property to the satisfaction of the Commissioner. Ownership is established by submitting to the Office, in the Office file related to the matter in which action is sought to be taken, documentary evidence of a chain of title from the original owner to the assignee (e.g., copy of an executed assignment submitted for recording) or by specifying (e.g., reel and frame number) where such evidence is recorded in the Office. The submission establishing ownership must be signed by a party authorized to act on behalf of the assignee. Documents submitted to establish ownership may be required to be recorded as a condition to permitting

the assignee to take action in a matter pending before the Office.

[57 FR 29642, July 6, 1992, as amended at 62 FR 53203, Oct. 10, 1997]

ISSUANCE TO ASSIGNEE

§ 3.81 Issue of patent to assignee.

(a) For a patent application, if an assignment of the entire right, title, and interest is recorded before the issue fee is paid, the patent may issue in the name of the assignee. If the assignee holds an undivided part interest, the patent may issue jointly to the inventor and the assignee. At the time the issue fee is paid, the name of the assignee must be provided if the patent is to issue solely or jointly to that assignee.

(b) If the assignment is submitted for recording after the date of payment of the issue fee, but prior to issuance of the patent, the assignee may petition that the patent issue to the assignee. Any such petition must be accompanied by the fee set forth in §1.17(i) of this chapter.

[57 FR 29642, July 6, 1992, as amended at 60 FR 20229, Apr. 25, 1995]

§3.85 Issue of registration to assignee.

The certificate of registration may be issued to the assignee of the applicant, or in a new name of the applicant, provided that the party files a written request in the trademark application by the time the application is being prepared for issuance of the certificate of registration, and the appropriate document is recorded in the Office. If the assignment or name change document has not been recorded in the Office, then the written request must state that the document has been filed for recordation. The address of the assignee must be made of record in the application file.

AUTHORITY: 35 U.S.C. 6, 41, 181-188, as amended by the Patent Law Foreign Filing Amendments Act of 1988, Pub. L. 100-418, 102 Stat. 1567; the Arms Export Control Act, as amended, 22 U.S.C. 2751 et seq., the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 2011 et seq., and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act of 1978, 22 U.S.C. 3201 et seq., and the delegations in the regulations under these acts to the Commissioner (15 CFR 370.10(j), 22 CFR 125.04, and 10 CFR 810.7).

SOURCE: 24 FR 10381, Dec. 22, 1959, unless otherwise noted.

SECRECY ORDERS

§5.1 Correspondence.

All correspondence in connection with this part, including petitions, must be addressed to "Assistant Commissioner for Patents (Attention Licensing and Review), Washington, DC 20231."

[62 FR 53203, Oct. 10, 1997] $5.2 Secrecy order.

(a) When notified by the chief officer of a defense agency that publication or disclosure of the invention by the granting of a patent would be detrimental to the national security, an order that the invention be kept secret will be issued by the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks.

(b) Any request for compensation as provided in 35 U.S.C. 183 must not be made to the Patent and Trademark Office, but directly to the department or agency which caused the secrecy order to be issued.

[24 FR 10381, Dec. 22, 1959, as amended at 62 FR 53203, Oct. 10, 1997]

§ 5.3 Prosecution of application under secrecy orders; withholding patent. Unless specifically ordered otherwise, action on the application by the Office and prosecution by the applicant will proceed during the time an application is under secrecy order to the point indicated in this section:

(a) National applications under secrecy order which come to a final rejection must be appealed or otherwise prosecuted to avoid abandonment. Appeals in such cases must be completed by the applicant but unless otherwise specifically ordered by the Commissioner will not be set for hearing until the secrecy order is removed.

(b) An interference will not be declared involving national applications under secrecy order. However, if an applicant whose application is under secrecy order seeks to provoke an interference with an issued patent, a notice of that fact will be placed in the file wrapper of the patent. (See §1.607(d))

(c) When the national application is found to be in condition for allowance except for the secrecy order the applicant and the agency which caused the

secrecy order to be issued will be notified. This notice (which is not a notice of allowance under §1.311 of this chapter) does not require reply by the applicant and places the national application in a condition of suspension until the secrecy order is removed. When the secrecy order is removed the Patent and Trademark Office will issue a notice of allowance under §1.311 of this chapter, or take such other action as may then be warranted.

(d) International applications under secrecy order will not be mailed, delivered or otherwise transmitted to the international authorities or the applicant. International applications under secrecy order will be processed up to the point where, if it were not for the secrecy order, record and search copies would be transmitted to the international authorities or the applicant.

(Pub. L. 94-131, 89 Stat. 685)

[43 FR 20470, May 11, 1978, as amended at 53 FR 23736, June 23, 1988; 62 FR 53203, Oct. 10, 1997]

§ 5.4 Petition for rescission of secrecy order.

(a) A petition for rescission or removal of a secrecy order may be filed by, or on behalf of, any principal affected thereby. Such petition may be in letter form, and it must be in duplicate.

(b) The petition must recite any and all facts that purport to render the order ineffectual or futile if this is the basis of the petition. When prior publications or patents are alleged the petition must give complete data as to such publications or patents and should be accompanied by copies thereof.

(c) The petition must identify any contract between the Government and any of the principals, under which the subject matter of the application or any significant part thereof was developed, or to which the subject matter is otherwise related. If there is no such contract, the petition must so state.

(d) Appeal to the Secretary of Commerce, as provided by 35 U.S.C. 181, from a secrecy order cannot be taken until after a petition for rescission of the secrecy order has been made and denied. Appeal must be taken within sixty days from the date of the denial,

and the party appealing, as well as the department or agency which caused the order to be issued, will be notified of the time and place of hearing.

[24 FR 10381, Dec. 22, 1959, as amended at 62 FR 53204, Oct. 10, 1997]

$5.5 Permit to disclose or modification of secrecy order.

(a) Consent to disclosure, or to the filing of an application abroad, as provided in 35 U.S.C. 182, shall be made by a "permit" or "modification" of the secrecy order.

(b) Petitions for a permit or modification must fully recite the reason or purpose for the proposed disclosure. Where any proposed disclosee is known to be cleared by a defense agency to receive classified information, adequate explanation of such clearance should be made in the petition including the name of the agency or department granting the clearance and the date and degree thereof. The petition must be filed in duplicate.

(c) In a petition for modification of a secrecy order to permit filing abroad, all countries in which it is proposed to file must be made known, as well as all attorneys, agents and others to whom the material will be consigned prior to being lodged in the foreign patent office. The petition should include a statement vouching for the loyalty and integrity of the proposed disclosees and where their clearance status in this or the foreign country is known all details should be given.

(d) Consent to the disclosure of subject matter from one application under secrecy order may be deemed to be consent to the disclosure of common subject matter in other applications under secrecy order so long as not taken out of context in a manner disclosing material beyond the modification granted in the first application.

(e) Organizations requiring consent for disclosure of applications under secrecy order to persons or organizations in connection with repeated routine operation may petition for such consent in the form of a general permit. To be successful such petitions must ordinarily recite the security clearance status of the disclosees as sufficient for

the highest classification of material that may be involved.

[24 FR 10381, Dec. 22, 1959, as amended at 62 FR 53204 Oct. 10, 1997]

§§ 5.6-5.8 [Reserved]

LICENSES FOR FOREIGN EXPORTING AND FILING

$5.11 License for filing in a foreign country an application on an invention made in the United States or for transmitting an international application.

(a) A license from the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks under 35 U.S.C. 184 is required before filing any application for patent including any modifications, amendments, or supplements thereto or divisions thereof or for the registration of a utility model, industrial design, or model, in a foreign patent office or any foreign patent agency or any international agency other than the United States Receiving Office, if the invention was made in the United States and:

(1) An application on the invention has been on file in the United States less than six months prior to the date on which the application is to be filed,

or

(2) No application on the invention has been filed in the United States.

(b) The license from the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks referred to in paragraph (a) would also authorize the export of technical data abroad for purposes relating to the preparation, filing or possible filing and prosecution of a foreign patent application without separately complying with the regulations contained in 22 CFR parts 121 through 130 (International Traffic in Arms Regulations of the Department of State), 15 CFR part 779 (Regulations of the Office of Export Administration, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce) and 10 CFR part 810 (Foreign Atomic Energy Programs of the Department of Energy).

(c) Where technical data in the form of a patent application, or in any form, is being exported for purposes related to the preparation, filing or possible filing and prosecution of a foreign patent application, without the license from the Commissioner of Patents and