(a) Affidavit of applicant. The form of the affidavit of an applicant for a United States patent depends on who is making the application, the type of invention, and the circumstances of the case. Officers of the Foreign Service are not responsible for the correctness of form of such affidavits, and should not endeavor to advise in their preparation. Persons who inquire at a Foreign Service post regarding the filing of patent applications may be referred to the pamphlet entitled “General Information Concerning Patents,” if copies thereof are available at the post.

(b) Oath or affirmation of applicant—(1) Authority to administer oath or affirmation. When an applicant for a patent resides in a foreign country, his oath or affirmation may be made before any diplomatic or consular officer of the United States authorized to administer oaths, or before any officer having an official seal and authorized to administer oaths in the foreign country in which the applicant may be, whose authority shall be proved by certificate of a diplomatic or consular officer of the United States (35 U.S.C. 115). See paragraph (c) of this section regarding authentication of the authority of a foreign official. A notary or other official in a foreign country who is not authorized to administer oaths is not qualified to notarize an application for a United States patent.

(2) Form of oath or affirmation. See §§ 92.19 and 92.20 for usual forms of oaths and affirmations.

(3) Execution of jurat. In executing the jurat, the officer should carefully observe the following direction with regard to ribboning and sealing: When the oath is taken before an officer in a country foreign to the United States, all the application papers, except the drawings, must be attached together and a ribbon passed one or more times through all the sheets of the application, except the drawings, and the ends of said ribbon brought together under the seal before the latter is affixed and impressed, or each sheet must be impressed with the official seal of the officer before whom the oath is taken. If the papers as filed are not properly ribboned or each sheet impressed with the seal, the case will be accepted for examination but before it is allowed, duplicate papers, prepared in compliance with the foregoing sentence, must be filed. (Rule 66, Rules of Practice of the United States Patent Office.)

(c) Authentication of authority of foreign official—(1) Necessity for authentication. When the affidavit required in connection with a patent application been sworn to or affirmed before an official in a foreign country other than a diplomatic or consular officer of the United States, an officer of the Foreign Service authenticate the authority of the official administering the oath or affirmation (35 U.S.C. 115). If the officer of the Foreign Service cannot authenticate the oath or affirmation, the document should be authenticated by a superior foreign official, or by a series of superior foreign officials if necessary. The seal and signature of the foreign official who affixes the last foreign authentication to the document should then be authenticated by the officer of the Foreign Service.

(2) Use of permanent ink. All papers which will become a part of a patent application filed in the United States Patent Office must be legibly written or printed in permanent ink. (Rule 52, Rules of Practice of the United States Patent Office.) Consular certificates of authentication executed in connection with patent applications should preferably be prepared on a typewriter; they should not be prepared on a hectograph machine.

(d) Authority of a foreign executor or administrator acting for deceased inventor. Legal representatives of deceased inventors and of those under legal incapacity may make application for patent upon compliance with the requirements and on the same terms and conditions applicable to the inventor (35 U.S.C. 117). The rules of the Patent Office require proof of the power or authority of the legal representative. See paragraph (c) of this section for procedure for authenticating the authority of a foreign official.

(e) Assignments of patents and applications for patents. An application for a patent, or a patent, or any interest therein, may be assigned in law by an instrument in writing. The applicant, or the patentee, or his assigns or legal representatives, may grant and convey an exclusive right under the application for patent, or under the patent, to the whole or any specified part of the United States. Any such assignment, grant, or conveyance of any application for patent, or of any patent, may be acknowledged, in a foreign country, before “a diplomatic or consular officer of the United States or an officer authorized to administer oaths whose authority is proved by a certificate of a diplomatic or consular officer of the United States” (35 U.S.C. 261). See § 92.37 regarding authentication of the authority of a foreign official.

(f) Fees. The fee for administering an oath, taking an acknowledgment, or supplying an authentication, in connection with patent applications is as prescribed in item 49 of the Tariff of Fees, Foreign Service of the United States of America (§ 22.1 of this chapter).