special nuclear material or atomic energy, made or conceived under any contract, subcontract, arrangement, or other relationship with the Commission, regardless of whether the contract or arrangement involved the expenditure of funds by the Commission, shall be deemed to have been made or conceived by the Commission, except that the Commission may waive its claim to any such invention or discovery if made or conceived by any person at or in connection with any laboratory under the jurisdiction of the Commission as provided in section 33, or under such other circumstances as the Commission may deem appropriate. No patent for any invention or discovery, useful in the production or utilization of special nuclear material or atomic energy, shall be issued unless the applicant files with the application, or within 30 days after request therefor by the Commissioner of Patents, a statement under oath setting forth the full facts surrounding the making or conception of the invention or discovery described in the application and whether the invention or discovery was inade or conceived in the course of, in connection with, or under the terms of any contract, subcontract, arrangement, or other relationship with the Commission, regardless of whether the contract or arrangement involved the expenditure of funds by the Commission. The Commissioner of Patents shall forthwith forward copies of the application and the statement to the Commission. The Commissioner of Patents may proceed with the application and issue the patent to the applicant (if the invention or discovery is otherwise patentable) unless the Commission, within 90 days after receipt of copies of the application and statement, directs the Commissioner of Patents to issue the patent to the Commission (if the invention or discovery is otherwise patentable) to be held by the Commission as the agent of and on behalf of the United States. If the Commission files such a direction with the Commissioner of Patents, and if the applicant's statement claims, and the applicant still believes, that the invention or discovery was not made or conceived in the course of, in connection with, or under the terms of any contract, subcontract, arrangement, or other relationship with the Commission entitling the Commission to take title to the application or the patent, the applicant may, within 30 days after notification of the filing of such a direction, request a hearing before a Board of Patent Interferences. The Board shall have the power to hear and determine whether the Commission was entitled to the direction filed with the Commissioner of Patents. The Board shall follow the rules and procedures established for interference cases and an appeal may be taken by either the applicant or the Commission from the final order of the Board to the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals in accordance with the procedures governing the appeals from the Board of Patent Interferences.

If the statement filed by the applicant should thereafter be found to contain false material statements, any notification by the Commission that it has no objections to the issuance of a patent to the applicant shall not be deemed in any respect to constitute a waiver of the provisions of this section or of any applicable civil or criminal statute, and the Commission may have the title to the patent transferred to the Commission on the records of the Commissioner of Patents in accordance with the provisions of this section.

THE APPLICATION

51. General requisites of an application. Applications for patents must be made to the Commissioner of Patents. A complete application comprises:

(a) A petition or request for a patent, see rule 61.

(b) A specification, including a claim or claims, see rules 71 to 77. (c) An oath, see rule 65.

(d) Drawings, when necessary, see rules 81 to 88.

(e) The prescribed filing fee. (See rule 21 for filing fees.)

52. Language, paper, writing, margins. (a) The petition, specification, and oath must be in the English language. All papers which are to become a part of the permanent records of the Patent Office must be legibly written or printed in permanent ink.

(b) The specification and claims, and also papers subsequently filed, must be plainly written on but one side of the paper. A wide margin must be reserved on the left-hand side and on the top of each page and the lines must not be crowded too closely together. Legal paper, 8 to 82 by 122 to 13 inches, typewritten and double spaced with margins of one and one-half inches on the left-hand side and top is deemed preferable. Typewritten or printed papers suitable for use by the Office may be required if the papers originally filed are not correctly, legibly and clearly written.

(c) Any interlineation, erasure or cancellation or other alteration made before the application was signed and sworn to should be clearly referred to in a marginal note or footnote on the same sheet of paper, and initialed or signed and dated by the applicant to indicate such fact. (See rule 56.)

35 U. S. C. 22. Printing of papers filed. The Commissioner may require papers filed in the Patent Office to be printed or typewritten.

53. Application accepted and filed for examination only when complete. An application for a patent will not be accepted and placed upon the files for examination until all its required parts, complying with the rules relating thereto, are received, except that certain minor informalities may be waived subject to subsequent correction whenever required.

If the papers and parts are incomplete, or so defective that they cannot be accepted as a complete application for examination, the applicant will be notified; the papers will be held six months for completion and, if not by then completed, will be stored as an abandoned incomplete application and eventually destroyed or otherwise disposed of; the fee submitted will be refunded.

54. Parts of application to be filed together. It is desirable that all parts of the complete application be deposited in the Office together; otherwise a letter must accompany each part, accurately and clearly connecting it with the other parts of the application.

55. Serial number and filing date of application. Complete applications are numbered in regular order, and the applicant will be informed of the serial number and filing date of the application by a filing receipt. The filing date of the application is the date on which the complete application, acceptable for placing on the files for examination, is received in the Patent Office; or the date on which the last part completing such application is received in the case of an incomplete or defective application completed within six months.

An applicant may claim the benefit of the filing date of a prior foreign application under the conditions specified in 35 U. S. C. 119. The claim to priority need be in no special form and may be made by the attorney or agent if the foreign application is referred to in the oath as required by rule 65. The claim for priority and the certified copy of the foreign application specified in the second paragraph of 35 U. S. C. 119 must be filed in the case of interference when specified in rules 216 and 224; when necessary to overcome the date of a reference relied upon by the examiner; or when specifically required by the examiner; and in all other cases they must be filed not later than the date the final fee is paid. If the papers filed are not in the English language, a translation need not be filed except in the three particular instances specified in the preceding sentence, in which event a sworn translation or a translation certified as accurate by a sworn or official translator must be filed.

35 U. S. C. 119. Benefit of earlier filing date in foreign country; right of priority. An application for patent for an invention filed in this country by any person who has, or whose legal representatives or assigns have, previously regularly filed an application for a patent for the same invention in a foreign country which affords similar privileges in the case of applications filed in the United States or to citizens of the United States, shall have the same effect as the same application would have if filed in this country on the date on which the application for patent for the same invention was first filed in such foreign country, if the application in this country is filed within twelve months from the earliest date on which such foreign application was filed; but no patent shall be granted on any application for patent for an invention which had been patented or described in a printed publication in any country more than one year before the date of the actual filing of the application in this country, or which had been in public use or on sale in this country more than one year prior to such filing.

No application for patent shall be entitled to this right of priority unless a claim therefor and a certified copy of the original foreign application, specification and drawings upon which it is based are filed in the Patent Office before the patent is granted, or at such time during the pendency of the application as required by the Commissioner not earlier than six months after the filing of the application in this country. Such certification shall be made by the patent office of the foreign country in which filed and show the date of the application and of the filing of the specification and other papers. The Commissioner may require a translation of the papers filed if not in the English language and such other information as he deems necessary.

NOTE: Following is a list of countries with respect to which the right of priority referred to in 35 U. S. C. 119 has been recognized. The authority in the case of these countries is the International Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (613 O. G. 23, 53 Stat. 1748), indicated by the letter I following the name of the country; the Inter-American Convention relating to Inventions, Patents, Designs and Industrial Models, signed at Buenos Aires August 20, 1910 (207 O. G. 935, 30 Stat. 1811), indicated by the letter P after the name of the country; or reciprocal legislation in the particular country, indicated by the letter L following the name of the country. Australia (I), Austria (I), Belgium (I), Brazil (I, P), Bulgaria (I), Canada (I), Costa Rica (P), Cuba (I, P), Czechoslovakia (I), Denmark (I), Dominican Republic (I, P), Ecuador (P), Egypt (I), Finland (I), France (I), Germany, West (Federal Republic of Germany) (I), Great Britain (I), Greece (I), Guatemala (P), Haiti (P), Honduras (P), Hungary (I), Indonesia (I), Ireland (I), Israel (I), Italy (I), Japan (I), Korea (L), Lebanon (I), Liechtenstein (I), Luxemburg (1), Mexico (I), Morocco, French Zone (I), Netherlands (I), New Zealand (I), Nicaragua (P), Norway (I), Panama (P), Paraguay (P), Philippines (L), Poland (I), Portugal (I), Roumania (I), Spain (I), Sweden (1), Switzerland (I), Syria (I), Tangier Zone (I), Tunis (I), Turkey (I), Union of South Africa (I), Uruguay (P), Yugoslavia (I).

35 U. S. C. 120. Benefit of earlier filing date in the United States. An application for patent for an invention disclosed in the manner provided by the first paragraph of section 112 of this title in an application previously filed in the United States by the same inventor shall have the same effect, as to such invention, as though filed on the date of the prior application, if filed before the patenting or abandonment of or termination of proceedings on the first application or on an application similarly entitled to the benefit of the filing date of the first application and if it contains or is amended to contain a specific reference to the earlier filed application.

56. Improper applications. Any application signed or sworn to in blank, or without actual inspection by the applicant, and any application altered or partly filled in after being signed or sworn to, and also any application fraudulently filed or in connection with which any fraud is practiced or attempted on the Patent Office, may be stricken from the files.

57. Signature. The application must be signed by the applicant in person. The signature to the oath will be accepted as the signature to the application provided the oath is attached to and refers to the petition, specification and claim to which it applies. Full names must be given, including the full first name without abbreviation, and the middle initial or name if any.

59. Papers of complete application not to be returned. The papers in a complete application will not be returned for any purpose whatever. If applicants have not preserved copies of the papers, the Office will furnish copies at the usual cost. See rule 87 for return of drawing.

PETITION

61. Petition. The petition must be addressed to the Commissioner of Patents and request the grant of a patent. The residence, and post office address of the petitioner must appear in the petition if not stated elsewhere in the application. The petition need not be separately signed when part of and attached to the specification and oath, otherwise it must be signed by the petitioner.

The power of attorney or authorization of agent may be incorporated in the petition.

THE OATH

65. Oath of applicant. (a) The applicant, if the inventor, must make oath or affirmation that he does verily believe himself to be the original and first inventor or discoverer of the process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, or improvement thereof, for which he solicits a patent; that he does not know and does not believe that the same was ever known or used before his invention or discovery thereof, and shall state of what country he is a citizen and where he resides, and whether he is a sole or joint inventor of the invention claimed in his application. In every original application the applicant must distinctly state under oath that to the best of his knowledge and belief the invention has not been in public use or on sale in the United States more than one year prior to his application, or patented or described in any printed publication in any country before his invention or more than one year prior to his application, or patented in any foreign country prior to the date of his application on an application filed by himself or his legal representatives or assigns more than twelve months prior to his application in this country. The oath shall state whether or not any application for patent on the same invention has been filed in any foreign country, either by the applicant or by his legal representatives or assigns. If any such application has been filed, the applicant shall name the country in which the earliest such application was filed, and shall give the day, month, and year of its filing; he shall also identify by country and by day, month, and year of filing, every such foreign application filed more than twelve months before the filing of the application in this country. This oath must be subscribed to by the affiant.

See rule 153 for oath in design cases and rule 162 for oath in plant patent applications.

(b) If the application is made as provided in rules 42, 43, or 47, the oath shall state the relationship of the affiant to the inventor and, upon information and belief, the facts which the inventor is required by this rule to make oath to.