35 U.S.C. § 162
Section 162 · Description, claim
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 11 court decisions — leading case Diamond v. Chakrabarty (1980)
Most recently applied in Amgen Inc. v. Sanofi, Aventisub LLC (October 2017)
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.
No plant patent shall be declared invalid for noncompliance with section 112 if the description is as complete as is reasonably possible.
The claim in the specification shall be in formal terms to the plant shown and described.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on Title 35, U.S.C., 1946 ed., §33, part (R.S. 4888, amended (1) Mar. 3, 1915, ch. 94, §1, 38 Stat. 958, (2) May 23, 1930, ch. 312, §2, 46 Stat. 376).
The first paragraph is the provision in R.S. 4888 (see section 112). The second paragraph is not in the statute but represents the actual practice.
Amendments
2011—Pub. L. 112–29 struck out “of this title” after “112”.
Effective Date of 2011 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 112–29 effective upon the expiration of the 1-year period beginning on Sept. 16, 2011, and applicable to proceedings commenced on or after that effective date, see section 20(l) of Pub. L. 112–29, set out as a note under section 2 of this title.