35 U.S.C. 171. Patents for designs. Whoever invents any new, original and ornamental design for an article of manufacture 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 designs, except as otherwise provided.

35 U.S.C. 172. Right of priority. The right of priority provided for by section 119 of this title and the time specified in section 102 (d) shall be six months in the case of designs.

152. Drawing. The design must be represented by a drawing made in conformity with the rules laid down for drawings of mechanical inventions and must contain a sufficient number of views to constitute a complete disclosure of the appearance of the article. Appropriate surface shading must be used to show the character or contour of the surfaces represented.

153. Title, description and claim, oath or declaration. (a) The title of the design must designate the particular article. No description, other than a reference to the drawing, is ordinarily required. The claim shall be in formal terms to the ornamental design for the article (specifying name) as shown, or as shown and described. More than one claim is neither required nor permitted.

(b) The oath or declaration required of the applicant must comply with rule 65 except that the period of twelve months specified therein with respect to foreign applications is six months in the case of designs.

154. Arrangement of specification. The following order of arrangement should be observed in framing design specifications: (a) Preamble, stating name 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. Issue and term of design patents. If, on examination, it shall appear that the applicant is entitled to a design patent under the law, a notice of allowance will be sent to him, his attorney or his agent, calling for the payment of an issue fee in an appropriate amount dependent on the duration of the term desired by the applicant. If this issue fee is not paid within three months of the date of the notice of allowance, the application shall be regarded as abandoned. If this fee is not timely paid but is submitted, with the fee for delayed payment, within three months of its due date with a verified showing of sufficient cause for the late payment, it may be accepted by the Commissioner as though no abandonment had ever occurred.

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 or declaration. 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 or declaration required of the applicant, in addition to the averments required by rule 65, must state that he has asexually reproduced the plant. Where the plant is a newly found plant the oath or declaration must also state that it was found in a cultivated area.

163. Specification. (a) 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. In the case of a newly found plant, the specification must particularly point out the location and character of the area where the plant was discovered.

(b) 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. (a) Plant patent drawings are not mechanical drawings and should be artistically and competently executed. Fig

ure 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.

(b) 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 watercolor or oil, or in lieu thereof may be photographs made by color photography or properly colored on sensitized paper. Permanently mounted color photographs are acceptable. The paper in any case must correspond in size, weight and quality to the paper required for other drawings. See rule 84. Nonpermanently mounted copies will be correctly mounted at applicant's expense, Rule 21 (1). (Amended May 28, 1971.)

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. (a) Applications may be submitted by the Patent Office to the Department of Agriculture for study and report.

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

Executive Order No. 5464, October 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) [now 35 U.S.C. 164], 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 insofar 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. (a) Reissue applications must be signed and sworn to, or declaration made, 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 or declaration made by the assignee of the entire interest if the application does not seek to enlarge the scope of the claims of the original patent.

(b) 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. (a) The drawings upon which the original patent was issued may be used in reissue applications if no changes whatsoever 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.

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

175. Reissue oath or declaration. (a) 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 or declaration as follows:

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

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

(3) 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.

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

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

(b) Corroborating affidavits or declarations of others may be filed and the examiner may, in any case, require additional information or