Fremont, CA asked in Patents (Intellectual Property) for California

Q: my name was transcripted to english differently. is there a way to correct get all patents under one name?

1 Lawyer Answer
Kevin E. Flynn
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  • Pittsboro, NC
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A: Your name can be corrected. The path varies on whether your name is there as assignee or inventor.

ASSIGNMENT -- It is fairly easy to change the name of the assignee. https://epas.uspto.gov/epas/p.jsp

Companies change their names all the time so you can file a name change. You can also file a corrective assignment. Any patent attorney should be able to help you handle this.

INVENTOR name-- this can be sticky. It can be done -- https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/37/1.324 but there does not seem to be an easy way to fix a small problem. They will make you jump through hoops as if you were changing the actual inventor rather than the way the inventor is named.

§ 1.324 Correction of inventorship in patent, pursuant to 35 U.S.C. 256.

(a) Whenever through error a person is named in an issued patent as the inventor, or an inventor is not named in an issued patent, the Director, pursuant to 35 U.S.C. 256, may, on application of all the parties and assignees, or on order of a court before which such matter is called in question, issue a certificate naming only the actual inventor or inventors.

(b) Any request to correct inventorship of a patent pursuant to paragraph (a) of this section must be accompanied by:

(1) A statement from each person who is being added as an inventor and each person who is currently named as an inventor either agreeing to the change of inventorship or stating that he or she has no disagreement in regard to the requested change;

(2) A statement from all assignees of the parties submitting a statement under paragraph (b)(1) of this section agreeing to the change of inventorship in the patent, which statement must comply with the requirements of § 3.73(c) of this chapter; and

(3) The fee set forth in § 1.20(b).

NOTE -- in either case the printed patents and the PDF versions of the patent will continue to list the name as it appeared the day the patent issued. The records will be updated and the search function in the assignment database will show the new name, but the patent will still appear as it was.

You can jump through an extra hoop and get a Certificate of Correction for applicant error (Since the PTO did not garble what was provided to it originally). That is like an errata sheet that will be appended to the end of the patent in future PDF files.

I hope this helps.

Kevin E Flynn

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