What is a Statutory Invention Registration (SIR)?

A Statutory Invention Registration (SIR) is not a patent. An inventor wishing to prevent others from obtaining a patent on their invention may request, at any time during the pendency of their complete application, that the specification and drawings be published as an SIR. Upon publication, the inventor waives all patent rights to the subject matter claimed in the statutory invention. The application to be published as an SIR must comply with 35 U.S.C. 112, and be complete as set forth in 37 CFR 1.51(b) including a specification with a claim or claims, an oath or declaration, and drawings when necessary. An SIR is a “constructive reduction to practice” under 35 U.S.C. 102(g) and “prior art” under all applicable sections of 35 U.S.C. 102 including section 102(e). SIRs are classified, cross-referenced, and placed in the search files, disseminated to foreign patent offices, stored in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office computer tapes, made available in commercial databases, and announced in the Official Gazette.

Posted: 3/26/2005 in:

2 Comments »

  1. […] Make it free to file a Statutory Invention Registration (SIR), which provides an inventor with the protection of public record of the invention, but waives all monopoly (patent) rights to the invention. Publishing the details of an invention in an academic journal has much the same effect, but submitting an SIR helps the patent office find prior art much more effectively (prior art unknown to examiners being one of the main problems with the current system). SIRs are woefully under-utilized in the US system, both because they are still expensive to obtain, and because they are little-known (try and find some info about them on the USPTO’s webpage, I dare you). Since this is largely a service to help the USPTO, why do they charge us for it? […]

    Pingback by pulanet » Blog Archive » China’s Entry into Intellectual Monopoly — 5/10/2007 @ 5:46 pm

  2. How can I register any new invention system to my name so no body can claim later on that it is his idea or steal the idea and say that it is his?

    Comment by mohammed — 3/31/2008 @ 1:56 pm

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