Title 35 of the United States Code


Title 35 of the United States Code is a title of United States Code regarding patent law. The sections of Title 35 govern all aspects of patent law in the United States. There are currently 37 chapters, which include 376 sections, in Title 35.
Federally recognized forms of intellectual property are scattered throughout the United States Code. Copyrights are covered under Title 17. Trademark and unfair competition law is defined in Chapter 22 of Title 15. Trade Secrets law, another form of intellectual property, is defined in Title 18.
Title 35 has four parts, which are delved into further later in the article:

United States Patent and Trademark Office

Sections 1 through 42 establish the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The USPTO is responsible for granting and issuing patents and registering trademarks.

Patentability

An invention must meet several requirements to be eligible for a patent. The invention must concern patentable subject matter. The invention must be novel and the application for a patent on the invention must be timely. The invention must be non-obvious. Finally, the invention must be sufficiently documented.

Section 101 - Inventions patentable

This may seem expansive, but there are limits to section 101 as outlined in the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure. Inventions/discoveries can only be patented once, that is double patenting is prohibited. Only the inventor may be listed as the applicant for a patent. The invention must have a use or utility that "is specific, substantial and credible". There are also limitations on the subject matter that can be patented, it must fall in the four categories of section 101: process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, and secondly that it "must qualify as patent-eligible subject matter". The idea of "patent-eligible subject matter" is to prevent abstract ideas, scientific laws, and natural phenomena i.e. chemical compounds, from being patented. The scope of patentable inventions was limited further by the Atomic Energy Act, and so "No patent shall hereafter be granted for any invention or discovery which is useful solely in the utilization of special nuclear material or atomic energy in an atomic weapon."

Section 102 - Conditions for Patentability

Section 102 describes some of the conditions when a patent should not be granted to an inventor based on the concept of novelty. These conditions generally relate to when an invention is already known publicly. Each subsection of section 102 describes a different kind of prior art which can be used as evidence that an invention is already public. This includes inventions that have already been described in other patent applications or publications. It also includes inventions that have been on sale for more than a year before a patent application was filed. Netscape Commc'ns Corp. v. Konrad is an example of a case that focuses on the public use and on-sale criteria of this section.
This section of US code was affected by the America Invents Act. The most important part of section 102 now reads as follows:
NOVELTY; PRIOR ART.—A person shall be entitled to a patent unless—
Prior to the AIA Section 102 read as follows:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless -
Sections 102, and are the most important considerations when determining patentable subject matter during patent prosecution.

Section 103

describes the condition of patentability referred to as non-obviousness. This provides that a patentable invention must not have been obvious to a "person having ordinary skill in the art" in view of the appropriate prior art. The most important judicial decision in interpreting 35 USC 103 is Graham v. John Deere Co. And more recently KSR v. Teleflex in which the Supreme Court of the United States reaffirmed Graham v. Deere and moved away from reliance on the TSM test.
, reads as follows:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The most important section of is 103:
35 U.S.C. 103 Conditions for patentability; non-obvious subject matter.
The full text of this section of the statute can be found

Section 112

dictates the form and content of the specification and the form and content of the patent application's claims. The first paragraph introduces 3 legal concepts, the written description requirement, the enablement requirement, and the best mode requirement. The second paragraph limits the ability of claims to be too open-ended or unclear.
reads as follows:
The pre-AIA version of section 112 is not substantially different from this.

Outline of title 35

Part I — United States Patent and Trademark Office

  • — Establishment, officers and employees, functions
  • — Proceedings in the Patent and Trademark Office
  • — Practice before Patent and Trademark Office
  • — Patent fees; funding; search systems

Part II — Patentability of Inventions and Grant of Patents

  • — Patentability of inventions
  • — Application for patent
  • — Examination of application
  • — Review of Patent and Trademark Office decisions
  • — Issue of patent
  • — Plant patents
  • — Designs
  • — Secrecy of certain inventions and filing applications in foreign country
  • — Patent rights in inventions made with federal assistance

Part III — Patents and Protection of Patent Rights

  • — Amendment and correction of patents
  • — Ownership and assignment
  • — Government interests in patents
  • — Infringement of patents
  • — Remedies for infringement of patent, and other actions
  • — Prior art citations to office and ex parte reexamination of patents
  • — Inter partes review
  • — Post-grant review

Part IV — Patent Cooperation Treaty

  • — Definitions
  • — International stage
  • — National stage

Part V — The Hague Agreement Concerning International Registration of Industrial Designs

  • — International design applications