35 U.S.C. § 131
Section 131 · Examination of application
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 56 court decisions — leading case Kingsdown Medical Consultants, Ltd. v. Hollister Inc. (1988)
Most recently applied in Odyssey Logistics and Tech. v. Iancu (May 2020)
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.
The Director shall cause an examination to be made of the application and the alleged new invention; and if on such examination it appears that the applicant is entitled to a patent under the law, the Director shall issue a patent therefor.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on Title 35, U.S.C., 1946 ed., §36 (R.S. 4893).
The first part is revised in language and amplified. The phrase “and that the invention is sufficiently useful and important” is omitted as unnecessary, the requirements for patentability being stated in sections 101, 102 and 103.
Amendments
1999—Pub. L. 106–113 substituted “Director” for “Commissioner” in two places.
Effective Date of 1999 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 106–113 effective 4 months after Nov. 29, 1999, see section 1000(a)(9) [title IV, §4731] of Pub. L. 106–113, set out as a note under section 1 of this title.
Cross References
Issue of patent, generally, see section 151 et seq. of this title.
Patentability of invention generally, see section 100 et seq. of this title.
Proceedings in the Patent and Trademark Office, see section 21 et seq. of this title.