Patents Act 1949

17 Substitution of applicants, etc. U.K.

(1) If the comptroller is satisfied, on a claim made in the prescribed manner at any time before a patent has been granted, that by virtue of any assignment or agreement made by the applicant or one of the applicants for the patent, or by operation of law, the claimant would, if the patent were then granted, be entitled thereto or to the interest of the applicant therein, or to an undivided share of the patent or of that interest, the comptroller may, subject to the provisions of this section, direct that the application shall proceed in the name of the claimant or in the names of the claimant and the applicant or the other joint applicant or applicants, according as the case may require.

(2) No such direction as aforesaid shall be given by virtue of any assignment or agreement made by one of two or more joint applicants for a patent except with the consent of the other joint applicant or applicants.

(3) No such direction as aforesaid shall be given by virtue of any assignment or agreement for the assignment of the benefit of an invention unless either—

(a) the invention is identified therein by reference to the number of the application for the patent; or

(b) there is produced to the comptroller an acknowledgment by the person by whom the assignment or agreement was made that the assignment or agreement relates to the invention in respect of which that application is made; or

(c) the rights of the claimant in respect of the invention have been finally established by a decision of any court or by a determination of the comptroller or the Appeal Tribunal under the following provisions of this Act.

(4) Where one of two or more joint applicants for a patent dies at any time before the patent has been granted, the comptroller may, upon a request in that behalf made by the survivor or survivors, and with the consent of the personal representative of the deceased, direct that the application shall proceed in the name of the survivor or survivors alone.

(5) If any dispute arises between joint applicants for a patent whether or in what manner the application should be proceeded with, the comptroller may, upon application made to him in the prescribed manner by any of the parties, and after giving to all parties concerned an opportunity to be heard, give such directions as he thinks fit for enabling the application to proceed in the name of one or more of the parties alone or for regulating the manner in which it shall be proceeded with, or for both those purposes, according as the case may require.

(6) An appeal shall lie from any decision of the comptroller under this section.