18 U.S.C. § 497
Letters patent
Whoever falsely makes, forges, counterfeits, or alters any letters patent granted or purporting to have been granted by the President of the United States; or
Whoever passes, utters, or publishes, or attempts to pass, utter, or publish as genuine, any such letters patent, knowing the same to be forged, counterfeited or falsely altered—
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 5
cases, 1985–2011 · leading case: Dowling v. United States
Dowling v. United States (1985)
“The only criminal provision relating to patents is 18 U. S. C. § 497 , which proscribes the forgery, counterfeiting, or false alteration of letters patent, or the uttering thereof.”
United States v. Perry Reich (2007)
“, 18 U.S.C. § 497 (prohibiting forgery of letters patent); 18 U.”
Stephen Wyden v. Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks (1986)
“(11) 18 U.S.C. § 497 (felony for forging patent or for knowingly transferring or publishing that patent).”
RODRIGUEZ-VALENCIA v. Holder (2011)
“§ 507 ; letters patent, 18 U.S.C. § 497 ; passports, 18 U.S.C. § 1543 ; postage stamps, 18 U.”
United States v. Cowan (1997)
“§ 496 (prohibiting forgery of documents pertaining to imports and customs duties); 18 U.S.C. § 497 (prohibiting forgery of letters patent); 18 U.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the
Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and
treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.