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Invention Registration
As of the 1999 American Inventors Protection Act, however, most patent applications filed in the US have been published 18 months after they were filed. These published patent applications serve a similar purpose to a statutory invention registration. Once an application is published, an inventor only needs to abandon their application in order to give up their right to a patent and dedicate the invention to the public.
According to the United States patent law, a statutory invention registration (SIR) is the publication of an invention by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The publication is made at the request of the inventor or owner of the invention
Historically, statutory invention registrations were for publishing patent applications an inventor felt he could not get a patent for. By publishing the patent applications, they helped to insure that the inventions were in the public domain
and no one else could subsequently get a patent on them.
The applicant pays application, publication, and other processing fees established by the Director. In order for an applicant to have a patent application published as an Invention Registration, the following conditions must be met:
- The application complies with the requirements for printing, which are regulated by the Director of the patent office
- The applicant waives the right to receive a patent on the invention within such period as may be prescribed by the Director
- The application must disclose the invention in sufficient detail that another person with similar skills can re-create the invention without having to experiment too much. Basically, the directions must be clear enough for someone with the skills to do it, to follow and understand the instructions.
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