The Statutory Invention Registration - or SIR

Choosing Statutory Invention Registration

In a statutory invention registration, the USPTO publishes an invention which had previously been the subject of a patent application for the benefit of the public.

The existence of the statutory invention registration is meant to provide some measure of authorial satisfaction to inventors in patent cases which go badly and to secure, for the benefit of the public, the use of an invention which might otherwise have fallen victim to the patent registration process.

Public Domain SIR

Statutory invention registrations were used by applicants for publishing patent applications on which they no longer felt they could get patents. By publishing the patent applications, they helped ensure that the inventions were in the public domain and no one else could subsequently get a patent on them, as a SIR could be applied as prior art against other patent applications in the same manner as a patent.

Why File A SIR?

A patent SIR is not a patent, but it can be used to keep other inventors from getting a patent.

When starting a patent application circumstances may occur, and things may change.  Whatever your reasoning any applicant for a patent may request, at any time during the pendency of their pending application, that the specification and drawings be published as an SIR. It then becomes part of the public record and can be used as prior art against later patent applications.

By using an SIR you are giving up any chance of getting a patent on this invention in the future.

An SIR Request Must Include:

  1.  A waiver of the applicant's right to receive a patent on the invention claimed effective upon the date of publication of the statutory invention registration.
  2.  A required fee for filing a request for publication of a statutory invention registration.
  3.  A statement that, in the opinion of the requester, the application to which the request is directed meets the requirements of 35 U.S.C. 112; and
  4.  A statement that, in the opinion of the requester, the application to which the request is directed complies with the formal requirements of this part for printing as a patent.

NOTE: This avenue can only be used with filed non-provisional applications - not provisional applications.

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