16 U.S.C. § 831r: Patents; access to Patent…

Summary

The Corporation may use the United States Patent and Trademark Office to study and copy methods, formulas, and scientific information it needs to make fixed nitrogen, important fertilizer ingredients, or to improve and lower the cost of producing hydroelectric power. The Patent Office must give the Corporation copies of its documents on request and without fees, but not pending patent applications. If the Corporation copies or uses a patented invention, the patent owner’s only remedy is to sue the Corporation in a federal district court equity proceeding to recover fair payment. These rules do not cover inventions an employee created while working for the Corporation or the U.S. government.

Title 16, §831r

Conservation, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

The Corporation, as an instrumentality and agency of the Government of the United States for the purpose of executing its constitutional powers, shall have access to the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the purpose of studying, ascertaining, and copying all methods, formula, and scientific information (not including access to pending applications for patents) necessary to enable the Corporation to use and employ the most efficacious and economical process for the production of fixed nitrogen, or any essential ingredient of fertilizer, or any method of improving and cheapening the production of hydroelectric power, and any owner of a patent whose patent rights may have been thus in any way copied, used, infringed, or employed by the exercise of this authority by the Corporation shall have as the exclusive remedy a cause of action against the Corporation to be instituted and prosecuted on the equity side of the appropriate district court of the United States, for the recovery of reasonable compensation for such infringement. The Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office shall furnish to the Corporation, at its request and without payment of fees, copies of documents on file in his office: Provided, That the benefits of this section shall not apply to any art, machine, method of manufacture, or composition of matter, discovered or invented by such employee during the time of his employment or service with the Corporation or with the Government of the United States.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1999—Pub. L. 106–113 substituted “United States Patent and Trademark Office” for “Patent Office of the United States” and “Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office” for “Commissioner of Patents”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 1999 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 106–113 effective 4 months after Nov. 29, 1999, see section 1000(a)(9) [title IV, § 4731] of Pub. L. 106–113, set out as a note under section 1 of Title 35, Patents.

§831r Patents; Access to Patent and Trademark Office and Right to Copy Patents; Compensation to Patentees