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Where the oath is taken before an officer in a foreign country other than a diplomatic or consular officer of the United States and whose authority is not authenticated or accompanied with an apostille certifying the notary's authority (see MPEP § 602.04(a)), the application is nevertheless accepted for purposes of examination. The examiner, in the first Office action, should note this informality and require authentication of the oath by an appropriate diplomatic or consular officer, the filing of proper apostille, or a declaration ( 37 CFR 1.68).
Form paragraph 6.08 may be used to notify applicant.
The oath is objected to as being informal. It lacks authentication by a diplomatic or consular officer of the United States; 37 CFR 1.66(a). This informality can be overcome either by forwarding the original oath to the appropriate officer for authentication or by filing either a declaration under 37 CFR 1.68, or a new properly authenticated oath under 37 CFR 1.66. The new oath or declaration must properly identify the application of which it is to form a part, preferably by application number and filing date in the body of the oath or declaration. If, however, authentication of the original oath is desired, applicant should request return of the oathfor this purpose. Such request must be accompanied by an order for a copy of the oath to be retained in the file until the properly authenticated oath is returned. After the oath has been authenticated, it should be returned promptly to the Patent and Trademark Office. See MPEP §§ 602.01 and 602.02.
At the time of the next Office action, the request for return of the oath, together with the application file and the copy of the oath, is submitted to the Technology Center (TC) Director. If the request is approved by the TC Director, the oath will be returned to the applicant by the TC. A copy of the original oath will be retained in the file.
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