[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4307 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4307

To amend title 35, United States Code, with respect to applications for 
                            process patents.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 28, 1994

Mr. Hughes (for himself, Mr. Moorhead, Mr. Frank of Massachusetts, Mr. 
  Boucher, Mr. Sensenbrenner, Mr. Fish, and Mr. Coble) introduced the 
  following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend title 35, United States Code, with respect to applications for 
                            process patents.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. EXAMINATION OF PROCESS PATENT APPLICATIONS FOR OBVIOUSNESS.

    Section 103 of title 35, United States Code, is amended--
            (1) by designating the first paragraph as subsection (a);
            (2) by designating the second paragraph as subsection (c); 
        and
            (3) by inserting after the first paragraph the following:
    ``(b)(1) Notwithstanding subsection (a), a process using or 
resulting in a product that is novel under section 102 and nonobvious 
under subsection (a) of this section, shall be considered nonobvious 
if--
            ``(A) claims to the process and the product are contained 
        in either the same application for patent or in separate 
        applications having the same effective filing date; and
            ``(B) the product, and the process at the time it was 
        invented, were owned by the same person or subject to an 
        obligation of assignment to the same person.
    ``(2) A patent issued on a process under paragraph (1)--
            ``(A) shall also contain the claims to the product used in 
        or made by that process, or
            ``(B) shall, if such product is claimed in another patent, 
        be set to expire on the same date as such other patent.''.

SEC. 2. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    The amendments made by section 1 shall apply to any application for 
patent filed on or after the date of the enactment of this Act and to 
any application for patent pending on such date of enactment, including 
(in either case) an application for the reissuance of a patent.

                                 <all>