Q: Have letter from Navy regarding Patent Off misspelling my brother's name on his patent, no correction found, next step?
A:
That patent has expired a long time ago. It is no longer relevant. I've never heard of anyone correcting an expired patent. It would be like correcting the spelling of a name on an apartment lease that you had 20 years ago.
Now, it may be possible to correct your brother's name on the patent, but it would have to be done by the patent owner, in this case, the US Navy. I've worked on several patent applications for one of the parts of the US Navy, and based on what I have experienced, I strongly doubt that the US Navy would spend time and money correcting an expired patent.
A:
You should be proud of your brother for being the sole inventor on any issued patent. But in this case there may be more reasons to be proud. From a PTO system called PAIR, you can see a few things about this patent. The patent is too old for the entire process to be accessible but there are some things you may find interesting. https://portal.uspto.gov/pair/PublicPair
I can see that the PTO records show that the sole inventor was Jon O. Bolstad. Interestingly, the invention was deemed a government secret from September 10, 1982 until the secrecy order was removed July 31, 1989. So this invention was so special the government did not want anyone to know about it and kept it held in secret for almost 7 years.
Further, the patent office allowed this application on the first examination which indicates that they could not find anything close to this technology. This is unusual too.
It is annoying that the name is not spelled correctly on the issued patent but mistakes happen and apparently no one followed up to get a Certificate of Correction.
You could order a complete set of documents from the file history for this patent. You can call 571 272 3150 to place an order with the USPTO. There will be a charge.
I hope this helps.
Kevin E Flynn
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