Preparation of contracts on transfer of patent rights for invention, utility model, industrial design

What is transfer of patent rights?

   The owner of the patent for invention, utility model or industrial design shall have the right to sell his/her patent to someone. The same procedure is often called assignment of patent rights. From the point of view of the Ukrainian legislation, the sale of a patent is called transfer of ownership.

How to transfer patent rights?

   In order to transfer ownership of a patent, it is necessary to sign the agreement between the current patent owner and its future owner.

What should be in the agreement for transfer of patent rights?

 The contract on transfer of patent rights must provide full details of the parties entering into this agreement (i.e. the patent owner and the future patent owner), patent number, title of the invention, utility model or industrial design specified in the patent, the rights and obligations of the parties, the terms of transfer of rights.

   If the patent owners are several individuals or legal entities, then all actions related to transfer of patent rights are determined by the agreement between the co-owners. This means that each co-owner of the patent shall have the right to use the object at his own discretion, but none of them can transfer the right to the third party without the permission of other co-owners.

How to register the contract on transfer of patent rights?

   According to the law, the contract on transfer of patent rights must be registered with the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine.

How long shall the contract on transfer of patent rights be registered?

   The procedure of registration of the contract on transfer of patent rights shall last 2 months from the date of submission of the set of documents to the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine. It is important that the documents were prepared correctly, and the details of the parties were specified without errors. Otherwise, the registration periods may be increased. After the end of the procedure, the information about transfer of patent rights is published in the official bulletin, and the new patent owner is issued the extract from the state register.