[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 43, Volume 1]
[Revised as of October 1, 2002]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 43CFR6.2]

[Page 168-169]
 
                    TITLE 43--PUBLIC LANDS: INTERIOR
 
PART 6--PATENT REGULATIONS--Table of Contents
 
                   Subpart A--Inventions by Employees
 
Sec. 6.2  Report of invention.

    (a) Every invention made by an employee of the Department shall be 
reported by such employee through his supervisor and the head of the 
bureau or office to the Solicitor, unless the invention obviously is 
unpatentable. If the invention is the result of group work, the report 
shall be made by the supervisor and shall be signed by all employees 
participating in the making of the invention. The original and two 
copies of the invention report shall be furnished to the Solicitor. The 
Solicitor may prescribe the form of the report.
    (b) The report shall be made as promptly as possible, taking into 
consideration such factors as possible publication or public use, 
reduction to practice, and the necessity for protecting any rights of 
the Government in the invention. Although it is not necessary to 
withhold the report until the process or device is completely reduced to 
practice, reduction to practice assists in the preparation of a patent 
application and, if diligently pursued, protects the interests of the 
Government and of the inventor. If an invention is reduced to practice 
after the invention report is filed, the Solicitor must be notified 
forthwith.
    (c) For the protection of the rights of the Government and of the 
inventor, invention reports and memoranda or correspondence concerning 
them are to be considered as confidential documents.
    (d) An invention report shall include the following:
    (1) A brief but pertinently descriptive title of the invention;
    (2) The full name, residence, office address, bureau or office and 
division, position or title, and official working place of the inventor 
or inventors;
    (3) A statement of the evidence that is available as to the making 
of the invention, including information relative to conception, 
disclosures to others, and reduction to practice. Examples of such 
information are references to signed, witnessed and dated laboratory 
notebooks, or other authenticated records pertaining to the conception 
of the invention, operational data sheets, analysis and operation 
evaluation reports pertaining to a reduction to practice, and visitor 
log books, letters and other documents pertaining to disclosures to 
others. These need not be submitted with the report, only the 
identifying data is required, e.g., volume and page number in a 
laboratory notebook;

[[Page 169]]

    (4) Information concerning any past or prospective publication, oral 
presentation or public use of the invention;
    (5) The problem which led to the making of the invention;
    (6) The objects, advantages, and uses of the invention;
    (7) A detailed description of the invention;
    (8) Experimental data;
    (9) The prior art known to the inventor(s) and the manner in which 
the invention distinguishes thereover;
    (10) A statement that the employee:
    (i) Is willing to and does hereby assign to the Government:
    (a) The entire rights (foreign and domestic) in the invention;
    (b) The domestic rights only, but grants to the Government an option 
to file for patent protection in any foreign country, said option to 
expire as to any country when it is decided not to file thereon in the 
United States, or within six months after such filing;
    (ii) Requests, pursuant to Sec. 6.2(e), a determination of the 
respective rights of the Government and of the inventor.
    (e) If the inventor believes that he is not required by the 
regulations in this subpart to assign to the Government the entire 
domestic right, title, and interest in and to the invention, and if he 
is unwilling to make such an assignment to the Government, he shall, in 
his invention report, request that the Solicitor determine the 
respective rights of the Government and of the inventor in the 
invention, and he shall include in his invention report information on 
the following points, in addition to the data called for in paragraph 
(d) of this section:
    (1) The circumstances under which the invention was made (conceived, 
actually reduced to practice or constructed and tested);
    (2) The employee's official duties, as given on his job sheet or 
otherwise assigned, at the time of the making of the invention;
    (3) The extent to which the invention was made during the inventor's 
official working hours, the extent use was made of government 
facilities, equipment, funds, material or information, and the time or 
services of other government employees on official duty;
    (4) Whether the employee wishes a patent application to be 
prosecuted under the Act of March 3, 1883, as amended (35 U.S.C. 266), 
if it should be determined that he is not required to assign all 
domestic rights to the invention to the Government; and
    (5) Whether the employee would be willing, upon request, to 
voluntarily assign foreign rights in the invention to the Government if 
it should be determined that an assignment of the domestic rights to the 
Government is not required.