A declaration is a required part of a patent application. It states a number of things about the inventor and the invention. Before the American Invents Act, a declaration stated that the inventor had authorized the application, that he/she was the original inventor, that he understood not make false statements, that he understood the duty to disclose information material to patentability, and that he had read and reviewed the application filed. After the AIA, only the first three of these have been mandated, however, there are several reasons for still including the statements despite the lessened requirement. Generally, an application is initially filed with the declarations. However, this is not always possible. In some cases, some inventors may not be willing to sign – perhaps they were a contracted engineer who designed an element and never got paid, and now doesn’t want to help with the patent application. Or they have moved away and are no longer in contact.…
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