Legal Definitions - certificate of correction

A certificate of correction is an official document used to fix minor errors in another formal record or legal document. It is typically employed when an error is clerical, typographical, or an oversight that does not change the fundamental substance or legal effect of the original document.

In the context of patents, specifically, a certificate of correction is a document issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to rectify small mistakes found in an issued patent. These corrections are limited to specific types of errors:

• Mistakes made by the USPTO itself during the patent examination or printing process.
• Minor clerical or typographical errors made by the patent applicant or their attorney.
• The accidental omission or incorrect identification of an inventor's name.

It's important to note that a certificate of correction cannot be used to fix major errors, such as fundamental flaws in the patent's technical description, drawings, or issues related to who owns the patent. For more substantial changes, a different legal process, like a "reissue patent," would be necessary.

Here are some examples illustrating the application of a certificate of correction:

• Example 1 (General Corporate Document): A newly formed technology startup filed its initial certificate of incorporation with the state's corporate registry. Due to a data entry error, the document mistakenly listed the company's registered agent's office number as "Suite 101" instead of the correct "Suite 110." The company would apply for a certificate of correction with the state's corporate filing office to amend this minor detail without having to re-file the entire incorporation document. This illustrates how a certificate of correction fixes a minor clerical error in an official document, not changing the company's existence or core structure.

• Example 2 (Patent - USPTO Error): A pharmaceutical company was granted a patent for a new drug compound. Upon receiving the official patent document, they noticed that one of the chemical formulas in the patent's detailed description contained a misplaced subscript, a clear typographical error introduced by the USPTO during the printing of the patent. The company would apply to the USPTO for a certificate of correction to rectify this specific mistake. This demonstrates a certificate of correction being used to fix a USPTO-made error, which is one of the permitted types of corrections for patents, as the error is minor and does not alter the scope of the invention.

• Example 3 (Patent - Inventor Omission): A team of four engineers collaborated on an invention for a new type of drone propulsion system. When the patent for their invention was issued, only three of the four inventors' names were listed on the official patent document; one engineer's name was accidentally left off the inventor list during the application process. The patent owner can apply to the USPTO for a certificate of correction to add the missing inventor's name to the patent. This illustrates the use of a certificate of correction to rectify the omission or misidentification of an inventor, another specific type of error allowed for patent corrections, as it is a factual correction rather than a change to the invention itself.