OATH OR DECLARATION, SIGNATURE

The oath or declaration of the applicant is required by law. The inventor must make an oath or declaration that he / she believes himself / herself to be the original and first inventor of the subject matter of the application, and he / she must make various other allegations required by law and various allegations required by the Patent and Trademark Office rules. The oath must be sworn to by the inventor before a notary public or other officer authorized to administer oaths. A declaration may be used in lieu of an oath as part of the original application for a patent involving design, plants, and other patentable inventions; for reissue patents; when claiming matter originally shown or described but not originally claimed; or when filing a divisional or continuing application. A declaration does not need to be notarized.
The application, oath or declaration must be signed by the inventor in person, or by the person entitled by law to make application on the inventor's behalf. A full first or middle name of each inventor without abbreviation and a middle or first initial, if any, is required. The post office address of the inventor is also required.
Blank forms for applications or certain other papers are not supplied by the Patent and Trademark Office.
The papers in a complete application will not be returned for any purpose whatever, nor will the filing fee be returned. If applicants have not preserved copies of the papers, the Office will furnish copies for a fee.