35 U.S.C. 172, Right of priority

Executive summary:

Revision by the AIA. The U.S. Patent Act was heavily revised by the America Invents Act. Revisions that alter this section of the Act can be seen in the revision page.

Source and Index. This document contains Section 172 ("Right of priority") of the U.S. Patent Act. This section was taken from the Eighth Edition, Eighth Revision of the MPEP (July 2010). This page was last updated in January 2011. You may return to the section index to find a particular section. Alternatively, you may search the Patent Act using the search box that appears on the left side of every page of BitLaw--you may restrict your search to Statutes on the search results page.

For more information on patent law, please see the Patent Section of BitLaw. For patent services, see the Beck & Tysver pages.

Previous Section (§171) | Next Section (§173)

35 U.S.C. 172 Right of priority.

The right of priority provided for by subsections (a) through (d) of section 119 of this title and the time specified in section 102(d) shall be six months in the case of designs. The right of priority provided for by section 119(e) of this title shall not apply to designs.

(Amended Dec. 8, 1994, Public Law 103-465, sec. 532(c)(2), 108 Stat. 4987.)