Inventor's Oath or Declaration best practices according to the USPTO

Different situations might exist when it comes to executing the inventor's oath or declaration (37 CFR 1.63). In this blog post, I summarize 4 different scenarios that the USPTO listed as possible examples. Please note, best practices regarding inventor's oath or declaration might evolve over time. Please further note, the following is the link to the document that I obtained at the time of this post (August 2018):

https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/aia_implementation/oath_declaration_examples.pdf

The link is a PDF document published by the US patent office to help potential Applicants in figuring out which forms to use in accordance with the AIA.

The following 4 examples regarding inventor's oath/declaration are presented:

• Inventors as Applicants

• Inventors as Applicants with Substitute Statements Needed

• Corporate Assignee as Applicant

• Corporate Assignee as Applicant with Substitute Statements Needed

The table below is adapted from the table within the published USPTO link from above. Notice that a few things are added. Namely, the Power of Attorney (AIA/82) is added for situations involving Corporate Assignee as an Applicant.

Upon review of the 4 listed examples from the document, the following is a table that further summarizes how to execute the oath/declaration and ADS according to specific situations:

Instead of using exact names as in the USPTO example scenarios, letters are being used to help simplify and organize for analysis. The table above is only for academic and discussion purposes only and not as legal advice. Please consult your patent practitioner for advice on your patent filing and assignments.

Please email me should you have any suggestions for edits.