An application for patent for an invention disclosed in the manner provided by section 112(a) (other than the requirement to disclose the best mode) in an application previously filed in the United States, or as provided by section 363, which names an inventor or joint inventor in the previously filed application shall have the same effect, as to such invention, as though filed on the date of the prior application, if filed before the patenting or abandonment of or termination of proceedings on the first application or on an application similarly entitled to the benefit of the filing date of the first application and if it contains or is amended to contain a specific reference to the earlier filed application. No application shall be entitled to the benefit of an earlier filed application under this section unless an amendment containing the specific reference to the earlier filed application is submitted at such time during the pendency of the application as required by the Director. The Director may consider the failure to submit such an amendment within that time period as a waiver of any benefit under this section. The Director may establish procedures, including the requirement for payment of the fee specified in section 41(a)(7), to accept an unintentionally delayed submission of an amendment under this section.
(July 19, 1952, ch. 950, 66 Stat. 800; Pub. L. 94–131, §9, Nov. 14, 1975, 89 Stat. 691; Pub. L. 98–622, title I, §104(b), Nov. 8, 1984, 98 Stat. 3385; Pub. L. 106–113, div. B, §1000(a)(9) [title IV, §4503(b)(1)], Nov. 29, 1999, 113 Stat. 1536, 1501A–563; Pub. L. 112–29, §§3(f), 15(b), 20(j), Sept. 16, 2011, 125 Stat. 288, 328, 335; Pub. L. 112–211, title I, §102(5), title II, §202(b)(3), Dec. 18, 2012, 126 Stat. 1531, 1536.)
Pub. L. 112–211, title I, §§102(5), 103, Dec. 18, 2012, 126 Stat. 1531, 1532, provided that, effective on the later of the date that is 1 year after Dec. 18, 2012, or the date that the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs enters into force with respect to the United States, and applicable only to certain applications filed on and after that effective date and patents issuing thereon, this section is amended in the first sentence by substituting "section 363 or 385" for "section 363". See 2012 Amendment note below.
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Last modified: October 26, 2015