United States Patent and Trademark Office OG Notices: 13 April 2004
Advance Notice of Change to MPEP 605.04(b), (c) and (f) -
Application Data Sheets Are Strongly Recommended When Inventor
Information is Changed
Effective immediately, in addition to the oath or declaration
executed by the patent applicant, the Office shall use a
contemporaneously or later submitted Application Data Sheet (ADS) per
37 CFR 1.76 as a data source for inventor information when preparing
for issuing a patent. The data source for inventor information for
patent application publications is the data used to generate a filing
receipt, and no change in this process is being made at this time.
Correcting Office Data for a Patent When There is an Error
in Spelling of an Inventor's Name and/or Inventor Name Change:
The Office strongly encourages the filing of an ADS whenever a
change to, or correction of, the inventorship data is requested. This
will enable the Office to capture the correct inventorship data during
the patent printing process. Accordingly, if the spelling of an
inventor's name is incorrect in the executed oath or declaration, an
ADS showing the correct spelling is strongly encouraged to be filed
with any request to correct the spelling of an inventor's name, Manual
of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) 605.04(b) (8th ed.
2001, revision 1, Feb. 2003). If an ADS is filed after the filing date
of an oath or declaration, the spelling of the inventor's name on the
ADS will be used for the spelling of an inventor's name. If the
inventor changes his or her name after execution of an oath or
declaration, while a petition under 37 CFR 1.182 and the required
petition fee are required, it is also strongly suggested that an ADS be
submitted so the corrected data can be captured by the Office.
37 CFR 1.76(d) sets forth whether an ADS or the
oath/declaration controls when there are inconsistencies between the
documents, with the general rule being that the ADS will control,
except for the naming of inventors and citizenship. See the provisions
in 37 CFR 1.76(d)(1)-(4) for specific situations. For patent printing
purposes, however, the names of the inventors will be taken from the
ADS. Thus, if an ADS is filed with names other than those on the
oath/declaration, since the oath/declaration controls but the patent
will be printed with data from the ADS, a certificate of correction
should be filed to correct the naming of the inventors on the patent to
correspond to the oath/declaration, or any granted request to correct
inventorship under 37 CFR 1.48(b).
37 CFR 1.76 also sets forth the proper format for an ADS (see
also MPEP 601.05). Information about ADS is also available on the
Office's Internet Web site (http://www.uspto.gov). (In the site index,
look under "Application Data Sheet Format.")
Correcting Office Data for a Patent involving the Order of
Names of Inventors:
Office computer records are relied upon for the order of names
of inventors and the number of inventors. For example, if the
oath/declaration signed by the inventors shows inventors in XYZ order
but latest filing receipt or Private PAIR show inventors in ZXY order
(because a petition under 37 CFR 1.182 was granted to change the order
of the inventor names, see MPEP 605.04(f)), the front page of the
patent should show ZXY order. If the declaration shows inventors A & B
& C but latest filing receipt or Private PAIR shows inventors A and C
(e.g., because there was a request under 37 CFR 1.48(b) to delete
inventor B), then the front page of the patent should show inventors A
& C. The accuracy of the Office computer records for the inventor's
names and their order is dependent, however, upon the Office capturing
the data correctly. The most reliable way for the Office to capture
changes of this type is to capture the data changes from an ADS. Thus,
to ensure that a patent will include the correct inventors' names, and
in the desired order, applicants are strongly encouraged to provide an
ADS in addition to the filing of a petition under 37 CFR 1.182 or a
request under 37 CFR 1.48(b) as noted above.
Questions regarding this notice should be directed to the
Office of Patent Legal Administration, at (703)308-6906, or to
PatentPractice@uspto.gov.
March 16, 2004 STEPHEN G. KUNIN
Deputy Commissioner for
Patent Examination Policy