Section 4895. Patents may be granted and issued or re-issued to the assignee or discoverer; but the assignment must first be entered of record in the Patent-Office. And in all cases of an application by an assignee for the issue of a patent, the application shall be made and the specification sworn to by the inventor or discoverer; and in all cases of an application for a re-issue of any patent, the application must be made and the corrected specification signed by the inventor or discoverer, if he is living, unless the patent was issued and the assignment made before the 8th day of July, 1870.

The inchoate right to obtain a patent or the right to an invention not yet patented may be assigned.32

32 Cammeyer vs. Newton, 94 U. S., 225.

No assignment of an unpatented invention is required to be recorded unless it is an assignment on which a patent is to be issued to the assignee.33

When and on What Oath Executor or Administrator, Guardian, Etc., of Insane Person May Obtain Patent.

Section 4896. When any person, having made any new invention or discovery for which a patent might have been granted, dies before a patent is granted, the right of applying for and obtaining the patent shall devolve on his executor or administrator, in trust for the heirs at law of the deceased, in case he shall have died intestate; or if he shall have left a will, disposing of the same, then in trust for his devisees in as full manner and on the same terms and conditions as the same might have been claimed or enjoyed by him in his lifetime; and when any person having made any new invention or discovery for which a patent might have been granted becomes insane before a patent is granted, the right of applying for and obtaining the patent shall devolve on his legally appointed guardian, conservator, or representative in trust for his estate, in as full manner and on the same terms and conditions as the same might have been claimed or enjoyed by him while sane; and when the application is made by such legal representatives, the oath or affirmation required to be made shall be so varied in form that it can be made by them.

The foregoing section, as to insane persons, is to cover all applications now on file in the Patent Office, or which may be hereafter made.

33 Wright vs. Randell, 8 Fed. Rep., 591.