(a) Every invention made by an employee of the Department shall be reported by such employee through his supervisor and the head of the bureau or office to the Solicitor, unless the invention obviously is unpatentable. If the invention is the result of group work, the report shall be made by the supervisor and shall be signed by all employees participating in the making of the invention. The original and two copies of the invention report shall be furnished to the Solicitor. The Solicitor may prescribe the form of the report.

(b) The report shall be made as promptly as possible, taking into consideration such factors as possible publication or public use, reduction to practice, and the necessity for protecting any rights of the Government in the invention. Although it is not necessary to withhold the report until the process or device is completely reduced to practice, reduction to practice assists in the preparation of a patent application and, if diligently pursued, protects the interests of the Government and of the inventor. If an invention is reduced to practice after the invention report is filed, the Solicitor must be notified forthwith.

(c) For the protection of the rights of the Government and of the inventor, invention reports and memoranda or correspondence concerning them are to be considered as confidential documents.

(d) An invention report shall include the following:

(1) A brief but pertinently descriptive title of the invention;

(2) The full name, residence, office address, bureau or office and division, position or title, and official working place of the inventor or inventors;

(3) A statement of the evidence that is available as to the making of the invention, including information relative to conception, disclosures to others, and reduction to practice. Examples of such information are references to signed, witnessed and dated laboratory notebooks, or other authenticated records pertaining to the conception of the invention, operational data sheets, analysis and operation evaluation reports pertaining to a reduction to practice, and visitor log books, letters and other documents pertaining to disclosures to others. These need not be submitted with the report, only the identifying data is required, e.g., volume and page number in a laboratory notebook;

(4) Information concerning any past or prospective publication, oral presentation or public use of the invention;

(5) The problem which led to the making of the invention;

(6) The objects, advantages, and uses of the invention;

(7) A detailed description of the invention;

(8) Experimental data;

(9) The prior art known to the inventor(s) and the manner in which the invention distinguishes thereover;

(10) A statement that the employee:

(i) Is willing to and does hereby assign to the Government:

(a) The entire rights (foreign and domestic) in the invention;

(b) The domestic rights only, but grants to the Government an option to file for patent protection in any foreign country, said option to expire as to any country when it is decided not to file thereon in the United States, or within six months after such filing;

(ii) Requests, pursuant to § 6.2(e), a determination of the respective rights of the Government and of the inventor.

(e) If the inventor believes that he is not required by the regulations in this subpart to assign to the Government the entire domestic right, title, and interest in and to the invention, and if he is unwilling to make such an assignment to the Government, he shall, in his invention report, request that the Solicitor determine the respective rights of the Government and of the inventor in the invention, and he shall include in his invention report information on the following points, in addition to the data called for in paragraph (d) of this section:

(1) The circumstances under which the invention was made (conceived, actually reduced to practice or constructed and tested);

(2) The employee's official duties, as given on his job sheet or otherwise assigned, at the time of the making of the invention;

(3) The extent to which the invention was made during the inventor's official working hours, the extent use was made of government facilities, equipment, funds, material or information, and the time or services of other government employees on official duty;

(4) Whether the employee wishes a patent application to be prosecuted under the Act of March 3, 1883, as amended (35 U.S.C. 266), if it should be determined that he is not required to assign all domestic rights to the invention to the Government; and

(5) Whether the employee would be willing, upon request, to voluntarily assign foreign rights in the invention to the Government if it should be determined that an assignment of the domestic rights to the Government is not required.