35 U.S.C. § 117
Section 117 · Death or incapacity of inventor
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Pannu v. Iolab Corp. (1998)
Most recently applied in Pannu v. Iolab Corp. (August 1998)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Legal representatives of deceased inventors and of those under legal incapacity may make application for patent upon compliance with the requirements and on the same terms and conditions applicable to the inventor.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on Title 35, U.S.C., 1946 ed., §46 (R.S. 4896, amended (1) Feb. 28, 1899, ch. 227, 30 Stat. 915, (2) Mar. 3, 1903, ch. 1019, §3, 32 Stat. 1225, 1226, (3) May 23, 1908, ch. 188, 35 Stat. 245).
The language has been considerably simplified.
Cross References
Fees for application for original or reissue of patent, see section 41 of this title.