Form 6 — Claim or Request Regarding a Change in the Applicant
Form 6 asks the Controller to substitute or add an applicant for a pending patent application after a transfer of rights.
What Form 6 is for
Ownership of a pending patent application can move. A startup is acquired, a founder assigns rights to the company, a research partnership reallocates its output, or an inventor who filed personally transfers the application to a firm. Section 20 gives the Controller power to make orders about the substitution of applicants, and Form 6 is how that power is invoked.
The form covers more than one situation. It is used where a person claims that the application, or an interest in it, has been transferred to them by assignment or by operation of law. It is used where an applicant asks that a co-applicant be added or removed. It is also used where an inventor asks to be treated as an applicant in the circumstances the section allows. Rules 34, 35 and 36 set out the manner in which each of those requests is made.
What the form achieves is a change on the register of the office's record of who is prosecuting the application. That matters because the applicant of record receives official communications, makes decisions about amendments and claims, and becomes the patentee on grant. Getting the record right before grant is far simpler than correcting the position afterwards. Because the forms are amended from time to time, download the current Form 6 from the Indian Patent Office before use.
Who files it, and when
The person claiming the transferred interest files it, or the existing applicant does, depending on which situation applies. Assignees, successors in business, legal representatives of a deceased applicant and inventors seeking to be joined as applicants all use this route. Where the request is agreed between the parties, it is usual for them to file jointly or for one to file with the other's written consent.
It is filed while the application is still pending, at any point before grant. Practical timing matters more than any fixed period. A transfer recorded early avoids confusion about who may instruct the agent and who may respond to an examination report. A transfer left unrecorded until just before grant risks the patent being granted in the wrong name, which then has to be sorted out through the post-grant route for registering title. After grant, changes in ownership are handled by the separate application to register title or interest rather than by this form.
How it is filed
- Complete the underlying transaction first, whether that is an assignment deed, a scheme of arrangement, a merger order or a devolution on death.
- Have the document properly executed and, where required, stamped, so that it can be produced as proof.
- Identify which limb of Section 20 the request falls under, since the manner of making it differs.
- Complete the current Form 6 with the application number, the existing applicant and the person to be substituted or added.
- File it with the proof of right or the document of title, and pay the fee prescribed in the First Schedule.
- Respond to any requirement the Controller raises about the sufficiency of the proof.
- Update the address for service and the agent's authorisation if those change with the ownership.
What the form asks for
- The application number, the title of the invention and the name of the applicant currently on record.
- The name, address and nationality of the person to be substituted or added.
- The basis of the claim, such as an assignment, a transmission, an operation of law or an agreement.
- The document that proves the transfer, or a certified copy of it.
- A statement of whether the change affects all applicants or only one of several.
- Signatures of the parties or of their authorised agents, as the current form requires.
Described in general terms. Form contents are prescribed in the Second Schedule and change — download the current version from the Patent Office rather than working from any summary, including this one.
Common mistakes with Form 6
- Filing the request without the document of title. The Controller decides on proof, and an unsupported assertion of ownership will not be acted on.
- Using an assignment that names the invention loosely and never mentions the application number, which leaves the office unable to link the two.
- Recording a change of applicant when the application has already been granted. After grant the correct route is the application to register title or interest.
- Overlooking co-applicants. Where an application has several applicants, changes usually need the position of all of them to be dealt with.
- Forgetting that the applicant category may change with ownership, so that a startup rate previously claimed may no longer apply after transfer to a large company.
What happens if it goes wrong
If the change is never recorded, the application continues in the old name and the patent is granted to a party that no longer holds the rights. That creates a mismatch between the register and the true position, which complicates licensing, funding due diligence and enforcement, since a claimant generally needs a clean title to sue. Correcting it after grant is possible but takes a further application, further proof and further delay. In the meantime the office will keep communicating with the recorded applicant, so an important deadline can be missed simply because the notice went to the wrong party.
An acquisition in Ahmedabad leaves an application in the seller's name
This is a simplified illustration. Vaayu Filtration LLP of Ahmedabad files an application for an industrial dust separator. Eighteen months later the business is acquired by Sarvodaya Industries Ltd, and the assets include the pending application. The deal documents assign it, but nobody tells the patent agent, whose instructions continue to come from the LLP's former partner out of habit. When the first examination report issues, the notice goes to the LLP's address for service and sits unattended for weeks. The mistake is caught in time. Sarvodaya files Form 6 with a copy of the assignment identifying the application by number, together with a fresh authorisation for its own agent and an updated address for service. The applicant of record is changed, the reply to the report is filed, and later financing diligence finds a clean chain of title rather than a gap.
Simplified illustration only. Actual outcomes depend on the facts.
Questions about Form 6
What is the difference between Form 6 and the application to register title after grant?
The difference is the stage. Form 6 deals with a pending application and asks the Controller to change who the applicant is, so that the patent will be granted to the right party. The application to register title or interest deals with a granted patent and asks for an entry to be made in the register of patents, which is the public record of ownership and of interests such as mortgages and licences. Using the wrong route for the stage simply results in the request being redirected.
What proof of the transfer does the Controller expect?
The office decides on documents, so the request should be supported by the instrument that effected the transfer, or a certified copy of it. That is usually an assignment deed executed by the assignor, but it can be a merger or amalgamation order, a succession document, or a partnership or company record where the change arises by operation of law. The document should identify the application clearly, ideally by number and title, and should be executed in a way that makes it admissible as evidence.
Can an inventor be added as an applicant?
Section 20 allows the Controller, in the circumstances the section describes, to deal with claims about who should be prosecuting an application, including requests that arise between inventors and applicants. Whether a particular request succeeds depends on the facts and on which limb of the section is engaged, and Rules 34 to 36 set out how each kind of request is made. This is a general explanation only. Anyone in an actual entitlement dispute should get advice on their own file rather than rely on a summary.
Does a change of applicant affect the filing date?
No. The filing date belongs to the application, not to the applicant, so substituting an applicant does not disturb it, and it does not disturb any priority claimed either. What can change are fee-related consequences, because fees depend on the applicant category. If an application filed at the natural person or startup rate passes to a company that does not qualify for those rates, the office can require the difference to be paid, so the fee position should be checked as part of the transfer.
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