35 U.S.C. § 122 — Confidential status of applications; publication of patent applications

This section controls how confidential a patent application is, and when it gets published. (a) Confidentiality. Except as subsection (b) allows, the Patent and Trademark Office must keep patent applications confidential. It cannot give out information about an application without the applicant's or owner's permission, unless a law requires it or the Director determines special circumstances call for it. (b) Publication. Paragraph (1)(A) says each application must generally be published about 18 months after the earliest filing date it can claim a benefit from, following procedures the Director sets — though the applicant can request earlier publication. Paragraph (1)(B) says no other information about a published application can be released except as the Director decides, and paragraph (1)(C) makes the Director's decision on releasing (or not releasing) that information final and not reviewable by a court. Paragraph (2) lists exceptions where publication does not happen: applications that are no longer pending; applications under a national-security "secrecy order" (section 181); provisional applications; and design patent applications. It also lets an applicant, at filing, certify the invention hasn't been and won't be filed in another country or under certain international agreements — in which case the application won't be published. The applicant can cancel that certification at any time. If the applicant later does file abroad, they must tell the Director within 45 days, or the application is treated as abandoned. Once that certification is cancelled or the Director is told about a foreign filing, the application gets published under the normal 18-month rule. If foreign filings describe the invention in less detail than the U.S. application, the applicant can submit a redacted (shortened) version for publication — but that redacted version must arrive within 16 months of the earliest filing date, or the normal rule applies, and if the redacted version doesn't fully teach the invention to a skilled reader, certain patent-term-related protections under section 154(d) won't apply to that claim. (c) Protest and Pre-Issuance Opposition. The Director must set up procedures so that, once an application is published, no one can file a protest or other opposition to it being granted a patent without the applicant's written consent. (d) National Security. An application cannot be published under (b)(1) if doing so would harm national security, and the Director must set up procedures to catch these applications early and keep them secret under chapter 17. (e) Preissuance Submissions by Third Parties. Outside parties may submit, in writing, a patent, published application, or other publication relevant to the examination, along with a short explanation of its relevance and a fee, plus a statement that the submission follows the rules. This must happen before the earlier of: a notice of allowance being issued, or the later of six months after the application was first published, or the date of the first rejection of any claim during examination.