Q: What is the process to give partial ownership of a patent to another party? Is this done in a court or the patent office
Is there a formal application & a legal process to transfer partial ownership to another person? Where is the application filed at? The library of congress (patent office), or the courthouse ? Thank you.
A:
You can assign a portion of the patent ownership to another person by a type of contract called an assignment.
You can record the assignment with the USPTO via https://epas.uspto.gov/.
In many cases, it is easier to give a person a portion of the company formed to work the patent than to assign a portion of the patent. There are lots of ways that this can end up as a mess so you need to discuss what it is you hope to achieve with an attorney used to doing these sort of transfers.
If a person is a co-owner of the patent, is it your intention that the co-owner may use the patent rights without paying royalties? Can that person license others? Can the person sell the fractional ownership to a big company and not share any of the sales prices with you? This needs to be carefully thought out.
I hope this helps.
Kevin E Flynn
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