Lapas attēli
PDF
ePub

154. Arrangement of specification. The following order of arrangement should be observed in framing design specifications:

(a) Preamble, stating name and residence of the applicant and title of the design.

(b) Description of the figure or figures of the drawing. (c) Description, if any.

(d) Claim.

(e) Signature of applicant (see rule 57).

155. Term of design patent. (a) The petition for a design should specify the term, 32, 7 or 14 years, for which a design patent is sought; but if no term is specified, or if the term specified is greater than that covered by the fee paid, the application will be accepted as filed for a term corresponding to the fee received, and the applicant so notified.

(b) Where the applicant initially requests that the patent issue for one of the shorter terms, he may, at any time before the application is allowed and passed to issue, upon the payment of the additional sum necessary, amend his application by requesting that the patent be issued for a longer term. In order to afford the applicant an opportunity for making such an amendment and paying the additional sum, the Office may notify him before the application is allowed and passed to issue unless otherwise directed, but failure of the Office to send or of the applicant to receive such notification will not warrant any change in the term requested after the application is allowed and passed to issue.

35 U. S. C. 173. Term of design patent. Patents for designs may be granted for the term of three years and six months, or for seven years, or for fourteen years, as the applicant, in his application, elects.

PLANT PATENTS

161. Rules applicable. The rules relating to applications for patent for other inventions or discoveries are also applicable to applications for patents for plants except as otherwise provided.

35 U. S. C. 161. Patents for plants. Whoever invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any distinct and new variety of plant, including cultivated sports, mutants, hybrids, and newly found seedlings, other than a tuber propagated plant or a plant found in an uncultivated state, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.

The provisions of this title relating to patents for inventions shall apply to patents for plants, except as otherwise provided.

35 U. S. C. 162. Description, claim. No plant patent shall be declared invalid for noncompliance with section 112 of this title if the description is as complete as is reasonably possible.

The claim in the specification shall be in formal terms to the plant shown and described.

35 U. S. C. 163. Grant. In the case of a plant patent the grant shall be of the right to exclude others from asexually reproducing the plant or selling or using the plant so reproduced.

162. Applicant, oath. The applicant for a plant patent must be the person who has invented or discovered and asexually reproduced the new and distinct variety of plant for which a patent is sought (or as provided in rules 42, 43, and 47). The oath required of the applicant, in addition to the averments required by rule 65, must state that he has asexually reproduced the plant.

163. Specification. The specification must contain as full and complete a disclosure as possible of the plant and the characteristics thereof that distinguish the same over related known varieties, and its antecedents, and must particularly point out where and in what manner the variety of plant has been asexually reproduced.

Two copies of the specification (including the claim) must be submitted, but only one need be signed and executed; the second copy may be a legible carbon copy of the original.

164. Claim. The claim shall be in formal terms to the new and distinct variety of the specified plant as described and illustrated, and may also recite the principal distinguishing characteristics. More than one claim is not permitted.

165. Drawings. Plant patent drawings are not mechanical drawings and should be artistically and competently executed. Figure numbers and reference characters need not be employed unless required by the examiner. The drawing must disclose all the distinctive characteristics of the plant capable of visual representation.

The drawing may be in color and when color is a distinguishing characteristic of the new variety, the drawing must be in color. Two copies of color drawings must be submitted. Color drawings may be made either in permanent water color or oil, or in lieu thereof may be photographs made by color photography or properly colored on sensitized paper. The paper in any case must correspond in size, weight and quality to the paper required for other drawings.

166. Specimens. The applicant may be required to furnish specimens of the plant, or its flower or fruit, in a quantity and at a time in its stage of growth as may be designated, for study and inspection. Such specimens, properly packed, must be forwarded in conformity with instructions furnished to the applicant. When it is not possible to forward such specimens, plants must be made available for official inspection where grown.

167. Examination. Applications may be submitted by the Patent Office to the Department of Agriculture for study and report.

Affidavits from qualified agricultural or horticultural experts regarding the novelty and distinctiveness of the variety of plant may be received when the need of such affidavits is indicated.

Executive Order No. 5464, Oct. 17, 1930. Facilitating the consideration of applications for plant patents. I, Herbert Hoover, President of the United States of America, under the authority conferred upon me by act of May 23, 1930 (Public No. 245) [46 Stat. 376], entitled "An act to provide for plant patents," and by virtue of all other powers vested in me relating thereto, do hereby direct the Secretary of Agriculture: (1) to furnish the Commissioner of Patents such available information of the Department of Agriculture, or (2) to conduct through the appropriate bureau or division of the department such research upon special problems, or (3) to detail to the Commissioner of Patents such officers and employees of the department, as the Commissioner may request for the purpose of carrying said act into effect.

35 U. S. C. 164. Assistance of Department of Agriculture. The President may by Executive order direct the Secretary of Agriculture, in accordance with the requests of the Commissioner, for the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions of this title with respect to plants (1) to furnish available information of the Department of Agriculture, (2) to conduct through the appropriate bureau or division of the Department research upon special problems, or (3) to detail to the Commissioner officers and employees of the Department.

REISSUES

171. Application for reissue. An application for reissue must contain the same parts required for an application for an original patent, complying with all the rules relating thereto except as otherwise provided, and in addition, must comply with the requirements of the rules relating to reissue applications. The application must be accompanied by a certified copy of an abstract of title or an order for a title report, to be placed in the file, and by an offer to surrender the original patent (rule 178).

35 U. S. C. 251. Reissue of defective patents. Whenever any patent is, through error without any deceptive intention, deemed wholly or partly inoperative or invalid, by reason of a defective specification or drawing, or by reason of the patentee claiming more or less than he had a right to claim in the patent, the Commissioner shall, on the surrender of such patent and the payment of the fee required by law, reissue the patent for the invention disclosed in the original patent, and in accordance with a new and amended application, for the unexpired part of the term of the original patent. No new matter shall be introduced into the application for reissue.

The Commissioner may issue several reissued patents for distinct and separate parts of the thing patented, upon demand of the applicant, and upon payment of the required fee for a reissue for each of such reissued patents.

The provisions of this title relating to applications for patent shall be applicable to applications for reissue of a patent, except that application for reissue

may be made and sworn to by the assignee of the entire interest if the application does not seek to enlarge the scope of the claims of the original patent.

No reissued patent shall be granted enlarging the scope of the claims of the original patent unless applied for within two years from the grant of the original patent.

35 U. S. C. 252. Effect of reissue. The surrender of the original patent shall take effect upon the issue of the reissued patent, and every reissued patent shall have the same effect and operation in law, on the trial of actions for causes thereafter arising, as if the same had been originally granted in such amended form, but in so far as the claims of the original and reissued patents are identical, such surrender shall not affect any action then pending nor abate any cause of action then existing, and the reissued patent, to the extent that its claims are identical with the original patent, shall constitute a continuation thereof and have effect continuously from the date of the original patent.

No reissued patent shall abridge or affect the right of any person or his successors in business who made, purchased or used prior to the grant of a reissue anything patented by the reissued patent, to continue the use of, or to sell to others to be used or sold, the specific thing so made, purchased or used, unless the making, using or selling of such thing infringes a valid claim of the reissued patent which was in the original patent. The court before which such matter is in question may provide for the continued manufacture, use or sale of the thing made, purchased or used as specified, or for the manufacture, use or sale of which substantial preparation was made before the grant of the reissue, and it may also provide for the continued practice of any process patented by the reissue, practiced, or for the practice of which substantial preparation was made, prior to the grant of the reissue, to the extent and under such terms as the court deems equitable for the protection of investments made or business commenced before the grant of the reissue.

172. Applicants, assignees. Reissue applications must be signed and sworn to by the inventors except as otherwise provided (see rules 42, 43, 47), and must be accompanied by the written assent of all assignees, if any, owning an undivided interest in the patent, but a reissue application may be made and sworn to by the assignee of the entire interest if the application does not seek to enlarge the scope of the claims of the original patent.

A reissue will be granted to the original patentee, his legal representatives or assigns as the interest may appear.

173. Specification. The specification of the reissue application must include the entire specification and claims of the patent, with the matter to be omitted by reissue enclosed in square brackets; and any additions made by the reissue must be underlined, so that the old and the new specifications and claims may be readily compared. Claims should not be renumbered and the numbering of claims added by reissue should follow the number of the highest numbered patent claim. No new matter shall be introduced into the specification.

174. Drawings. The drawings upon which the original patent was issued may be used in reissue applications if no changes whatso

ever are to be made in the drawings. In such cases, when the reissue application is filed, the applicant must submit a temporary drawing which may consist of a copy of the printed drawings of the patent or a photoprint of the original drawings securely mounted by pasting on sheets of drawing board of the size required for original drawing, or an order for the same.

Amendments which can be made in a reissue drawing, that is, changes from the drawing of the patent, are restricted.

175. Reissue oath. Applicants for reissue, in addition to complying with the requirements of the first sentence of rule 65, must also file with their applications a statement under oath as follows:

(a) That applicant verily believes the original patent to be wholly or partly inoperative or invalid, and the reasons why.

(b) When it is claimed that such patent is so inoperative or invalid "by reason of a defective specification or drawing," particularly specifying such defects.

(c) When it is claimed that such patent is inoperative or invalid "by reason of the patentee claiming more or less than he had a right to claim in the patent," distinctly specifying the excess or insufficiency in the claims.

(d) Particularly specifying the errors relied upon, and how they arose or occurred.

(e) That said errors arose "without any deceptive intention" on the part of the applicant.

Corroborating affidavits of others may be filed and the examiner may, in any case, require additional information or affidavits concerning the application for reissue and its object.

176. Examination of reissue. An original claim, if re-presented in the reissue application, is subject to re-examination, and the entire application will be examined in the same manner as original applications, subject to the rules relating thereto, excepting that division will not be required. Applications for reissue will be acted on by the examiner in advance of other applications.

177. Reissue in divisions. The Commissioner may, in his discretion, cause several patents to be issued for distinct and separate parts of the thing patented, upon demand of the applicant, and upon payment of the required fee for each division. Each division of a reissue constitutes the subject of a separate specification descriptive of the part or parts of the invention claimed in such division; and the drawing may represent only such parts or parts, subject to the provisions of rules 83 and 84. On filing divisional reissue applications, they shall be referred to the Commissioner. Unless otherwise ordered by the

« iepriekšējāTurpināt »