35 U.S.C. § 185 — Patent barred for filing without license

submitted 74 years ago by ch. 950 to r/title-35-PATENTS · 119 words · no verdicts yet

in plain englishAI-generated · not legal advice

Filing a foreign patent application without the required license blocks a U.S. patent, for the filer or their successors. Any patent issued anyway is invalid. The exception: the missed license was an honest mistake, and the patent reveals no protected subject matter.

This section blocks someone from getting a U.S. patent under certain conditions. If a person — or their successors, assigns, or legal representatives — files a patent application in a foreign country for an invention, or helps someone else file one, without first getting the license required under section 184, they can't get a U.S. patent on that invention. If a U.S. patent is issued anyway, it is invalid. There's one exception: the patent stays valid if two things are both true. First, the failure to get the license happened by "error" — an honest mistake, not on purpose. Second, the patent doesn't disclose any subject matter that falls within the scope of section 181 (inventions the government has ordered kept secret).

the actual law source: uscode.house.gov ↗public domain

Notwithstanding any other provisions of law any person, and his successors, assigns, or legal representatives, shall not receive a United States patent for an invention if that person, or his successors, assigns, or legal representatives shall, without procuring the license prescribed in section 184, have made, or consented to or assisted another’s making, application in a foreign country for a patent or for the registration of a utility model, industrial design, or model in respect of the invention. A United States patent issued to such person, his successors, assigns, or legal representatives shall be invalid, unless the failure to procure such license was through error, and the patent does not disclose subject matter within the scope of section 181.

Source credit: (July 19, 1952, ch. 950, 66 Stat. 807; Pub. L. 100–418, title IX, § 9101(b)(2), Aug. 23, 1988, 102 Stat. 1568; Pub. L. 107–273, div. C, title III, § 13206(a)(11), Nov. 2, 2002, 116 Stat. 1904; Pub. L. 112–29, § 20(c), (j), Sept. 16, 2011, 125 Stat. 333, 335.)

history & why it existsrecord from the source credit

1952Enacted · Act of July 19, 1952, ch. 950 · 66 Stat. 807
1988Amended · Pub. L. 100-418 · 102 Stat. 1568
2002Amended · Pub. L. 107-273 · 116 Stat. 1904
2011Amended · Pub. L. 112-29 · 125 Stat. 333, 335

A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by ch. 950 on 1952-07-19.

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