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Oath:

A swearing to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, which would subject the oath-taker to a prosecution for the crime of perjury if he/she knowingly lies in a statement either orally in a trial or deposition or in writing. The Director may by rule prescribe that any document to be filed in the Patent and Trademark Office and which is required by any law, rule, or other regulation to be under oath may be subscribed to by a written declaration in such form as the Director may prescribe, such declaration to be in lieu of the oath otherwise required. Whenever such written declaration is used, the document must warn the declarant that willful false statements and the like are punishable by fine or imprisonment, or both.

Objections:

If the form of the claim (as distinguished from its substance) is improper, an “objection” is made by the examiner. If the substance of the claim is in question it is rejected.

Obviousness:

An invention is patentable if it would not have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made.

Office Action:

An official communication from a patent office.

Omnibus Claim:

Some applications are filed with an omnibus claim which reads as follows: A device substantially as shown and described. This claim should be rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112, second paragraph because it is indefinite in that it fails to point out what is included or excluded by the claim language.

On Sale:

35 U.S.C. 102(b) “contains several distinct bars to patentability, each of which relates to activity or disclosure more than one year prior to the date of the application. One of these is the ‘on sale’ one year prior to filing a patent application.

Open For Public Inspection (OPI):

The date upon which a patent application is first made available to the public.

Opposition:

Any member of the public, including private persons, corporate entities, and government agencies, may file a protest against pending applications under 37 CFR 1.291. An attorney or other representative on behalf of an unnamed principal may file a protest since the rule does not require that the principal be identified.

Ordinary Skill in the Art:

The “hypothetical ‘person having ordinary skill in the art’ to which the claimed subject matter pertains would, of necessity have the capability of understanding the scientific and engineering principles applicable to the pertinent art.” Ex parte Hiyamizu, 10 USPQ2d 1393, 1394.