In United States patent law, a statutory disclaimer is a statement in writing, recorded in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, disclaiming a complete claim of a patent or disclaiming a term, or terminal part of a term, of a patent granted or to be granted.[1] If a claim in a patent is invalid, 35 U.S.C. § 288 requires that the invalid claim be disclaimed before costs may be recovered. A disclaimer disclaiming a terminal part of a term is called a terminal disclaimer and is often used to overcome a rejection for obviousness-type double patenting; however, a terminal disclaimer is ineffective against a rejection for same-invention double patenting under 35 U.S.C. § 101.[2]
A statutory disclaimer may be filed as a paper document or through the Electronic Filing System as a document saved as PDF. A terminal disclaimer may also be filed as a purely Web-based eTerminal Disclaimer.[3]