35 U.S.C. § 4
Restrictions on officers and employees as to interest in patents
United States · Title 35 — PATENTS · Status: effective
Cite this
- Citation
- 35 U.S.C. § 4, Restrictions on officers and employees as to interest in patents, United States, version 1 as recorded 2026-07-09, yourstate.us, https://yourstate.us/provision/470776
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Full text
Officers and employees of the Patent and Trademark Office shall be incapable, during the period of their appointments and for one year thereafter, of applying for a patent and of acquiring, directly or indirectly, except by inheritance or bequest, any patent or any right or interest in any patent, issued or to be issued by the Office. In patents applied for thereafter they shall not be entitled to any priority date earlier than one year after the termination of their appointment.
Legislative history
The public laws that enacted or amended this section. Tallies are for the whole bill as it passed each chamber — often an omnibus covering far more than this provision — not a vote on this section alone. The law that originally enacted this section predates the public laws loaded here, so only later amendments are listed.
- A bill to amend the Trademark Act of 1946 and title 35 of the United States Code to change the name of the Patent Office to the "Patent and Trademark Office".House: no recorded tallySenate: no recorded tally