Patent Forms—Power of Attorney, Inventor Declaration

The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office is now recommending that new forms be used for the Inventor Declaration and for the Power of Attorney. These forms are available for downloading on our website:

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You will notice that the Declaration form is quite simple and should be signed by the inventor(s) as usual, after the inventor(s) have read and understood the contents of the specification for filing in the United States.

The new change is intended to separate the Power of Attorney from the Declaration form because the U.S. Patent Office has determined that the Power of Attorney should come from the Assignee and not from the inventor(s), as was done previously.

It is acceptable to have a single General Power of Attorney form signed by a representative of the company which grants power of attorney for all applications assigned to the Assignee. The individual patent application numbers will not be indicated in the General Power of Attorney. If the company gives our firm a General Power of Attorney, they will not have to give us any further Power of Attorney when they file future patent applications in the U.S. For each such future patent application, we will merely make photocopies of the General Power of Attorney and submit that together with a copy of the executed Assignment.

Alternatively, a case specific Power of Attorney form may be used which will give a Power of Attorney for one specific patent application. In filling out a case specific Power of Attorney form to be filed with a new application, the form should be completed by inserting the first named inventor and the title of the invention to identify the application. The other spaces may be left blank. A case specific Power of Attorney form may be signed by the Assignee or signed by the inventor(s). An Assignment from the Inventors to the Assignee for the specific case must accompany a case specific Power of Attorney.

Where the Power of Attorney has been signed by the assignee, the representative of the company should be someone authorized by the Board of Directors of the company to sign papers on behalf of the company. It is the preference of the U.S. Patent Office that we submit the Power of Attorney signed by the Assignee. If it is not convenient to have the representative of the Assignee sign the Power of Attorney form, please use the Power of Attorney form signed by the inventor(s).

If there are multiple assignees, until the U.S. Patent Office clarifies its rules, our firm will only accept a Power of Attorney form signed by the inventors. We cannot accept a Power of Attorney form signed by multiple assignees.

At this time, the new forms are only recommended by the U.S. Patent Office to be used. They are not yet mandatory. The previous forms which you have been using containing our customer number may continue to be used if you prefer. However, since it is the preference of the U.S. Patent Office that the new forms be used, we recommend that you soon begin doing so.