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| Terms: |
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Deceased Inventor: A named inventor who has died
prior to the filing of a patent application or during the prosecution of
a patent application. |
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Declaration: 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. Such declaration may be used in lieu of the oath otherwise
required, if, and only if, the declarant is on the same document, warned
that willful false statements and the like are punishable by fine or
imprisonment, or both and may jeopardize the validity of the application
or any patent issuing thereon. The declarant must set forth in the body
of the declaration that all statements made of the declarant's own
knowledge are true and that all statements made on information and
belief are believed to be true. |
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Defensive Publication: The Defensive Publication
Program, which provided for the publication of the abstract of the
technical disclosure of a pending application if the applicant waived
his or her rights to an enforceable patent, was available between April
1968 and May 8, 1985. The program was ended in view of the applicant's
ability to obtain a Statutory Invention Registration. |
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Demand: Form PCT/IPEA/401, filed with an
International Preliminary Examining Authority, demanding that an
international application shall be the subject of an international
preliminary examination. |
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Dependent Claim: A claim that refers back ("depends
on") to and further limits a preceding dependent or independent claim. A
dependent claim shall include every limitation of the claim from which
it depends. |
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Design Patent: May be granted to anyone who invents a
new, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture. |
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Disclaimer: A patentee, whether of the whole or any
sectional interest therein, may, on payment of the fee required by law,
make disclaimer (give up all or part of the owner's rights to enforce
claims) of any complete claim , stating therein the extent of their
interest in such patent. Such disclaimers are required to be in writing
and recorded in the USPTO, and are considered as part of the original
patent to the extent of the interest actually possessed by the
disclaimant and by those claiming under him. Any patentee or applicant
may disclaim or dedicate to the public the entire term, or any terminal
part of the term (from a certain point in time through the projected end
of the entire term), of the patent granted or to be granted. There are
two types of disclaimers: (1) statutory disclaimer and (2) terminal
disclaimer. |
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Disclosure: In return for a patent, the inventor gives as consideration
a complete revelation or disclosure of the invention which protection is
sought. |
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Disclosure Document: A paper disclosing an invention
(called a Disclosure Document) and signed by the inventor or inventors
that has been forwarded to the USPTO by the inventor (or by any one of
the inventors when there are joint inventors), by the owner of the
invention, or by the attorney or agent of the inventor(s) or owner. The
Disclosure Document will be retained for two years, and then be
destroyed unless it is referred to in a separate letter in a related
patent application filed within those two years. |
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Divisional Application: A later application for an
independent or distinct invention disclosing and claiming (only a
portion of and) only subject matter disclosed in the earlier or parent
application. |
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Doctrine of Equivalents: In patent infringement
cases, the "doctrine of equivalents" allows a patent owner to prove
infringement even when the claims are not literally infringed. |
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Double Patenting: A judicially created doctrine
intended to prevent improper time wise extension of a patent right by
prohibiting the issuance of claims in a second patent that are not "patentably
distinct" from the claims of a first patent. The doctrine prohibits
claims in a second patent that are merely an obvious variation of the
claims of a first patent. If the patent applicant cannot convince the
patent examiner that the claims of the second patent are not merely an
obvious variation of the earlier claims, the remedy is to file a
Terminal Disclaimer. |
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Double Patenting Rejection: A rejection of a patent
claim on the grounds that it is an improper attempt to obtain more than
one patent on the same invention or on an obvious variant of the same
invention. |
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Drawing: Patent drawings must show every feature of
the invention as specified in the claims. Omission of drawings may cause
an application to be considered incomplete but are only required if
drawings are necessary for the understanding of the subject matter
sought to be patented. |
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