35 U.S.C. § 157
Section 157 · Statutory invention registration
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 1 court decisions — leading case In re Mullendore (2014)
Most recently applied in In re Mullendore (September 2014)
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) Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, the Director is authorized to publish a statutory invention registration containing the specification and drawings of a regularly filed application for a patent without examination if the applicant—
(1) meets the requirements of section 112 of this title;
(2) has complied with the requirements for printing, as set forth in regulations of the Director;
(3) waives the right to receive a patent on the invention within such period as may be prescribed by the Director; and
(4) pays application, publication, and other processing fees established by the Director.
If an interference is declared with respect to such an application, a statutory invention registration may not be published unless the issue of priority of invention is finally determined in favor of the applicant.
(b) The waiver under subsection (a)(3) of this section by an applicant shall take effect upon publication of the statutory invention registration.
(c) A statutory invention registration published pursuant to this section shall have all of the attributes specified for patents in this title except those specified in section 183 and sections 271 through 289 of this title. A statutory invention registration shall not have any of the attributes specified for patents in any other provision of law other than this title. A statutory invention registration published pursuant to this section shall give appropriate notice to the public, pursuant to regulations which the Director shall issue, of the preceding provisions of this subsection. The invention with respect to which a statutory invention certificate is published is not a patented invention for purposes of section 292 of this title.
(d) The Director shall report to the Congress annually on the use of statutory invention registrations. Such report shall include an assessment of the degree to which agencies of the Federal Government are making use of the statutory invention registration system, the degree to which it aids the management of federally developed technology, and an assessment of the cost savings to the Federal Government of the use of such procedures.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1999—Subsecs. (a), (c). Pub. L. 106–113, §1000(a)(9) [title IV, §4732(a)(10)(A), substituted “Director” for “Commissioner” wherever appearing.
Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 106–113, §1000(a)(9) [title IV, §4732(a)(11)], substituted “Director” for “Secretary of Commerce”.
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
Section 102(c) of Pub. L. 98–622 provided that: “The amendments made by this section [enacting this section and item 157 in the table of sections of this chapter] shall take effect six months after the date of enactment of this Act [Nov. 8, 1984].”