35 U.S.C. § 25
Section 25 · Declaration in lieu of oath
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case Stamicarbon, N.V. v. Chemical Construction Corp. (1975)
Most recently applied in In re Precious Diamonds, Inc. (December 1980)
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.
(a) The Director may by rule prescribe that any document to be filed in the Patent and Trademark Office and which is required by any law, rule, or other regulation to be under oath may be subscribed to by a written declaration in such form as the Director may prescribe, such declaration to be in lieu of the oath otherwise required.
(b) Whenever such written declaration is used, the document must warn the declarant that willful false statements and the like are punishable by fine or imprisonment, or both (18 U.S.C. 1001).
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1999—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 106–113 substituted “Director” for “Commissioner” in two places.
1975—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 93–596 substituted “Patent and Trademark Office” for “Patent Office”.
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.
Effective Date of 1975 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 93–596 effective Jan. 2, 1975, see section 4 of Pub. L. 93–596, set out as a note under section 1111 of Title 15, Commerce and Trade.