Chapter 2000: Duty of Disclosure
This chapter deals with the duties of disclosure. Each inventor and every other individual who is substantially involved in the preparation or prosecution of the application has a duty of disclosure. These duties consist of candor, good faith and the duty to disclose all relevant materials to the PTO.
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The Executive Summaries from the main chapter sections have been copied here for your convenience (subsections are not included here). They will help you remember what each main section of the Guidebook (MPEP) covers as you answer the questions from the quizzes above.
This section covers the duty of disclosure, candor and good faith. Essentially, any information material to the patentability of the invention must be disclosed to the Office with candor and good faith. Materiality refers to all references or other information pertaining to the patentability of the subject matter in an application.
This section specifies the information included under the duty to disclose. The duty to disclose exists until the application becomes abandoned.
This section covers who has a duty to disclose (which is basically everyone involved in the application) and how to disclose the information.
Applicants involved in reissue applications are encouraged to file information disclosure statements at the time of filing or within 2 months of the filing.
This section lists the aids to assist compliance with duty of disclosure. These include examples such as asking questions about inventorship and questionnaires for the applicant involving the disclosure.
A determination of inequitable conduct or a deceptive intention by the applicant requires a high level of proof. This section further discusses how the Office handles duty of disclosure/inequitable conduct issues along with a definition of collateral estoppel.
A finding of “fraud”, “inequitable conduct” or a violation of duty of disclosure with respect to any claim in an application or patent, renders all the claims thereof unpatentable or invalid.
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