Law - Last Day To Deposit Biological Materials

If a deposit of a biological material is part of the disclosure of an invention, the time of making the deposit must comply with the rules of the patent office in the jurisdiction in which the patent is sought. In the U.S., deposits of biological material that are adequately identified in the patent application, may be deposited during the pendancy of the application (i.e., before the date that the payment of the issue fee is mailed). If, however, the filing date of the patent application is intended to establish a priority date for patent applications to be filed in certain other countries, the deposit should be made before the application is filed.

The position of the USPTO on this issue is described in the following section(s) of the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP):

MPEP 2406 - Time of Making an Original Deposit
MPEP 2406.03 - Possible Loss of U.S. Filing Date in Other Countries


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