shall be punished by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or a fine not exceeding $1,000 for each offense, or both. (b) Where an agent, attorney, or firm recognized to practice before the Patent Office assumes responsibility for the service of preparing or prosecuting a patent application at the time such service is rendered, the service shall be considered as performed by such agent, attorney, or firm within the meaning of this section. "(c) The district courts of the United States are empowered to issue injunctions forbidding any person guilty of conduct in violation of subsection (a) of this section from further violations and to enforce said injunctions at the suit of the Solicitor or any person injured or likely to be injured by the conduct enjoined, and any person bringing such suit may sue for the penalty prescribed by said subsection (a), in which even one-half shall go to the person suing and the other to the United States. "Sec. "41. Patent fees. "CHAPTER 4.-PATENT OFFICE FEES "42. Payment of fees; return of excess amounts. "S41. Patent fees "(a) The Commissioner shall prescribe by regulation the charges to be made for copies of records and publications and for services furnished by the Patent Office other than pursuant to part II of this title designed to effect a recovery in the range of 90 to 110 per centum of the cost to the Patent Office of the copies and services so furnished. (b) The Commissioner shall prescribe by regulation the fees to be paid in connection with the filing and examination of patent applications, the issuance and maintenance in force of patents, and other matters set forth in part II of this title as requiring a fee designed together with the fees prescribed pursuant to subsection (a) of this section, to effect an overall recovery in the range of 65 to 75 per centum of the costs of operation of the Patent Office. "(c) Fees prescribed by the Commissioner pursuant to subsection (b) of this section shall be in multiples of a fee unit amount fixed by the Commissioner to accomplish the purpose of that subsection while maintaining the relative amounts of particular fees as hereinafter prescribed in part II of this title. "(d) The Commissioner shall prescribe by regulation, consistent with the provisions of this title, the time for payment of the fees to be paid under this title. If payment of the fees in connection with the examination, publication, or issuance of a patent application is not timely made, the application shall be regarded as abandoned. An applicant shall be given at least thirty days following notice of a fee due pursuant to section 137 or 141 of this title in which to pay the fee. Errors in payment of fees may be rectified in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Commissioner. "(e) The fees established under the authority of this section shall apply to any other Government department or agency, or officer thereof, except that the Commissioner may waive the payment of any fee for service or materials in cases of occasional or incidental requests by a Government department or agency, or officer thereof. "(f) The Commissioner may prescribe by regulation when copies of Patent Office records and publications may be provided without charge, or at reduced or nominal fees, or in exchange for records or publications of foreign countries. "42. Payments of fees; return of excess amounts "All fees shall be paid to the Commissioner, who shall deposit the same in the Treasury of the United States in such manner as the Secretary of the Treasury directs, and the Commissioner may refund any sum paid by mistake or in excess of the fee required. "Sec. "CHAPTER 10. PATENTABILITY OF INVENTIONS "100. Definitions. 101. Right to patent; inventions patentable. "102. Conditions for patentability; novelty and non-obvious subject matter. "103. Conditions for patentability; recovery of right to patent. "PART II-PATENTABILITY OF INVENTIONS AND GRANT OF PATENTS "Chapter "10. Patentability of Inventions "11. Application for Patent "12. Review and Examination of Application "13. Grant of Patent "14. Review of Patent Office Decisions "15. Plant Patents "16. Design Patents "17. Secrecy and Filing Applications in Foreign Countries "18. Amendment and Correction of Patent Rights "§100. Definitions "When used in this title unless the context otherwise indicates"(a) The term 'invention' includes both invention and discovery. Sec. 100 111 131 141 151 161 171 181 191 "(b) The term 'process' includes process, art, and method and a new process includes a new use of a known process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, or material. "(c) The terms 'United States' and 'this country' denote the United States of America, its territories and possessions, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and vessels, aircraft, and vehicles of the United States wherever located. "(d) The term 'applicant' means any person who has filed or who owns an application for patent as provided in this title. (e) The term 'regular worker in the art' includes only persons having ordinary skill in the art to which the subject matter of an invention pertains. "(f) The term 'knowledge of the art' means information known to the regular workers in the art in the United States or available to those regular workers as a reasonable consequence of a disclosure in tangible form or of a use or a placing on sale anywhere in the world. "(g) The term 'effective filing date' means the date upon which a complete United States application was filed or the earliest date upon which any United States or foreign application referred to therein and forming the basis for any valid claim of priority therefor was filed, whichever is earlier. A complete application or the resulting patent may contain separate claims for subject matter having different effective filing dates. "(h) The term 'prior art' means the knowledge of the art prior to the effective filing date of patent application, and the disclosure in a United States patent or published complete application becomes prior art as of its effective filing date. "(i) The term 'patentee' includes not only the person to whom the patent is issued but also the successors in title to such person. "(j) The term 'useful' includes, but is not limited to, utility in agriculture, commerce, industry, medicine, or research into any of them. "(k) An 'approved deposit' shall be a deposit of a microorganism which: "(1) is made in any public depository in the United States which shall have been designated for such deposits by the Commissioner by publication, and "(2) is available to the public, except as otherwise prohibited by law, in accordance with such regulations as may be prescribed upon the publication of the complete application which refers to such deposit. "S101. Right to patent; inventions patentable "Any invention of a new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement of an existing process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, may be the subject of a patent granted pursuant to the conditions and requirements of this title. "$102. Conditions for patentability; novelty and nonobvious subject matter "A person claiming ownership of an invention shall be entitled to a patent therefor unless "(a) The invention was disclosed in the prior art, or "(b) Although not identically disclosed in the prior art, the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious on the effective filing date of the patent application to a regular worker in the art. Patentabil ity shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made. Inventions of a new combination of known mechanical or other elements shall be subject to the same conditions for patentability as are applied to inventions of other types of subject matter. "§103. Conditions for patentability; recovery of right to patent "Information in the prior art solely as a consequence of disclosure derived from the applicant for a patent or his predecessor in title to the invention shall not negative the patentability of the invention if otherwise patentable upon a complete application filed within twelve months after such disclosure. "Sec. "CHAPTER 11.-APPLICATION FOR PATENT "111. Application for patent. "112. Complete specification. "113. Drawings. "114. Models, specimens. "115. Statement of claim of ownership. "116. Preliminary disclosure. "117. Benefit of earlier filing in foreign country; right of priority. "118. Benefit of earlier filing in the United States. "119. Divisional applications. "120. Confidential status, publication, and abandonment of applications. "§111. Application for patent "Application for patent shall be made in writing to the Commissioner by a person claiming ownership of the invention. Such application, if a complete application, shall include: (1) a complete specification as prescribed by section 112 of this title; (2) a drawing as prescribed by section 113 of this title; and (3) a statement of claim of ownership as prescribed by section 115 of this title. The complete application must be signed by the applicant, or on behalf of applicant by a person regularly authorized to practice before the Patent Office, and be accompanied by a fee of two fee units. Such application, if a prelimi nary application, shall include (1) a preliminary disclosure as prescribed by section 116 of this title and (2) a statement of claim of ownership as prescribed by section 115 of this title. The preliminary application must be signed by the applicant, or by any person authorized to act on his behalf who shall, unless he is a person regularly authorized to practice before the Patent Office. state under oath the source of his authority, and be accompanied by a fee of one fee unit. "§112. Complete specification "(a) The specification shall contain: (i) a description of the invention; (ii) a claim or claims; and (iii) an abstract. "(b) The description shall disclose the invention in a manner sufficiently clear and complete for the invention to be carried out by a regular worker in the art. When the invention relates to a process involving the action of a microorganism not already known and available to the public or to a production of such a process, the description required by subsection (b) of this section shall be sufficient as to said microorganism, if: "(1) not later than the date that the complete application is filed, an approved deposit of a culture of the microorganism is made by or on behalf of the applicant or his predecessor in title, and "(2) the description includes the name of the depository and its designation of the approved deposit and, taken as a whole, is in such descriptive terms as to enable any regular worker in the art to carry it out. "(c) The claim or claims shall define the matter for which protection is sought. Claims shall be clear and concise. They shall be fully supported by the description. "A basic claim is a claim to subject matter which may be used independently of the subject matter of any other claim. Basic claims shall be written in independent form and other claims in dependent form. A claim in dependent form shall be construed to include all the limitations of a claim or claims incorporated by reference into the dependent claim. "An element in a claim for a combination of elements may be expressed as a means or step for performing its function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof. A claim shall be construed to preserve its validity and to secure to the patentee any patentable invention disclosed in the specification and within the reasonable intendment of the claim, as the specification and claim would be understood by a regular worker in the art. (d) The abstract shall briefly summarize the technical features of the invention. It merely serves the purpose of technical information and cannot be taken into account for any other purpose, particularly not for the purpose of interpreting the scope of the protection sought. "§113. Drawings "The applicant shall furnish a drawing where necessary for the understanding of the invention. When the nature of the invention admits of illustration by a drawing and the applicant has not furnished such a drawing, the Commissioner may require its submission within a time period of not less than two months from the sending of a notice thereof. "§114. Models, specimens "The Commissioner may require the applicant to furnish a model of convenient size to exhibit advantageously the several parts of his invention. "When the invention relates to a composition of matter, the Commissioner may require the applicant to furnish specimens or ingredients for the purpose of inspection or experiment. "$115. Statement of claim of ownership "A statement of claim of ownership shall set forth (1) the name of the applicant; (2) the citizenship, domicile, and post office address of applicant; (3) the person or persons believed to have made the invention; and (4) the basis upon which the applicant claims to have succeeded to the rights of each person named as having made the invention. The applicant shall cause a copy of the statement of claim of ownership to be served promptly upon each person named therein wherever found in any manner sufficient to effect service of process under any subdivision of rule 4 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and such service may be made by any person other than applicant who is not less than eighteen years of age. Proof of service shall be filed with the Commissioner. "No error made in the naming of the persons believed to have made the invention shall affect the validity of the application or of a patent issued thereon. The title to an application and to a patent issued thereon shall be determined as prescribed in chapter 25 of this title. “§116. Preliminary disclosure "(a) The disclosure shall contain a description of the invention in terms sufficiently plain to enable a regular worker in the art to understand it. A disclosure which if in the prior art would defeat the patentability of the invention under section 102 of this title shall be sufficient disclosure thereof for the purposes of this section 116. (b) When the invention relates to a process involving the action of a microorganism not already known and available to the public or to a product of such a process, the description required by subsection (a) of this section shall be sufficient as to said microorganism, if not later than the date that the preliminary application is filed, an approved deposit, of a culture of the microorganism is made by or on behalf of the applicant or his predecessor in title, and the description includes the name of the depository and its designation of the approved deposit and, taken as a whole, is in such terms as to enable any regular worker in the art to understand it. "$117. Benefit of earlier filing in foreign country; right of priority "(a) 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. "(b) 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. "(c) In like manner and subject to the same conditions and requirements, the right provided in this section may be based upon a subsequent regularly filed application in the same foreign country instead of the first filed foreign application, provided that any foreign application filed prior to such subsequent application has been withdrawn, abandoned, or otherwise disposed of, without having been laid open to public inspection and without leaving any rights outstanding, and has not served, nor thereafter shall serve, as a basis for claiming a right of priority. "(d) When the application claiming priority under this section discloses an invention relating to a process involving the action of a microorganism not already known and available to the public or to a product of such a process and an approved deposit is made under section 112, subsection (b), the approved deposit shall be considered to have been made on the earliest date that an application in a foreign country, the priority of which is being claimed, contains a reference identifying a deposit of the same microorganism made in a public depository. "(e) Applications for inventors' certificates filed in a foreign country in which applicants have a right to apply, at their discretion, either for a patent or for an inventor's certificate shall be treated in this country in the same manner and have the same effect for purpose of the right of priority under this section as applications for patents, subject to the same conditions and requirements of this section as apply to applications for patents, provided such applicants are entitled to the benefits of the Stockholm Revision of the Paris Convention at the time of such filing. "§118. Benefit of earlier filing in the United States "A complete application for patent for an invention disclosed in the manner provided by section 116 of this title in a complete or a preliminary application previously filed in the United States by the same applicant or by a person through whom an applicant claims ownership 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 publication 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 each earlier application. "$119. Divisional applications; double patenting "(a) If two or more separately patentable inventions are claimed in one complete application, the Commissioner may require the application to be restricted to one of the inventions. If the other invention is made the subject of a divisional complete application which complies with the requirements of section 118 of this title, it shall be entitled to the benefit of the filing date of the original application. A patent issuing on an application with respect to which a requirement for restriction under this section has been made, or on an application filed as a result of such a requirement, shall not be used as a reference either in the Patent Office or in the courts against a divisional application or against the original application or any patent issued on either of them. if the divisional application is filed before the issuance of the patent on the other application. The validity of a patent shall not be questioned for failure of the Commissioner to require the application to be restricted to one invention. (b) If two or more complete applications belonging to the same applicant are pending which appear to relate to inventions that are not patentably sepa |