Transferring or acquiring a patent

The rights attached to a patent or patent application are transferable in whole or in part. The assignment of these rights, usually referred to as a "patent assignment", is a contract by which the owner of the rights to a patent or patent application transfers all or part of the title and the rights attached to it to a third party, in return for a cash consideration.

While the transfer of a patent is subject to the same legal regime as the sale of an asset, it also has its own specific characteristics.

The sale may be an isolated operation, or part of a larger project such as the global sale of a business.

The purpose of this sheet is to identify the various points to be considered in order to ensure the validity of the assignment contract, and the rights and obligations arising from this assignment for each of the parties to the contract.