Section 28 of the Patents Act, 1970
Mention of inventor as such in patent
Lets a true and first inventor be named as inventor in the patent and the register, without giving that person any ownership in the patent.
Official legal text
The verbatim statutory text of this provision is reproduced from the official source and checked by our legal reviewer before it is published here. Until that check is complete for this page, read the exact wording directly from the official source linked below — it is the only version that governs.
Treat this page as a guide. The provision as officially published, along with the Gazette notifications that apply to it, remains the governing text and overrides any simplification here.
What this section says, in plain language
Ownership and inventorship are two different things in patent law. The applicant, often a company, owns the patent. The inventor is the human being who actually devised the invention. Section 28 protects the second of these. It ensures that the person who made the invention is named as such in the patent and in the register of patents, even where the patent belongs to an employer or a funder.
The naming can be triggered from either side. The applicant or the patentee can ask for a person to be mentioned as inventor. The person who says they are the true and first inventor can also make the claim themselves. The Controller may hear the parties before deciding, and where a mention has been made wrongly, or a person has been left out, there is a route to apply for the mention to be varied or deleted. The Rules prescribe the form, the manner and the procedure for the hearing.
The most important limitation is stated in the section itself. Being mentioned as inventor confers no rights in the patent. A named inventor does not become a co-owner, cannot license the patent, cannot sue for infringement, and has no automatic claim to royalties. Any share of the money has to come from a separate arrangement, such as an employment policy, an institutional revenue-sharing scheme, or a contract. Inventors who assume the mention gives them a stake are frequently disappointed.
What the mention does give is real, though non-financial. It is the public, official record that this person made this invention. It supports academic promotion, research grants, professional standing, immigration and visa applications that reward extraordinary ability, and future negotiations. Recent amendments to the Rules also introduced a certificate of inventorship, which an inventor can request so the recognition sits in a single document rather than being buried in the patent record.
Why this section matters
Employed inventors, research scholars, students, and consultants whose inventions are owned by a company or institution.
Around and after grant, whenever the list of inventors needs to be established, corrected or evidenced.
A right to be named as inventor in the patent and the register, and a route to correct a mention that is wrong.
A genuine inventor may vanish from the public record, losing recognition that matters for careers, grants and visas, while a person wrongly named stays on it.
How it works in practice
The scholar who was left off the list
A biotechnology laboratory at a Pune university filed and obtained a patent on a stabilised enzyme formulation. The patent was owned by the university, which was correct under its research policy. The named inventors were the principal investigator and a post-doctoral fellow. Rohit Deshmukh, the doctoral scholar who had actually designed and run the stabilisation experiments and whose thesis chapter described them, was not named. When he applied for a faculty position abroad, the selection committee asked for evidence of his inventive contribution, and the patent did not mention him. Rohit made a claim to be mentioned as an inventor, supported by his lab notebooks, dated experimental records and internal presentations. After hearing the parties the Controller directed that his name be added as an inventor. His ownership position did not change at all; the university still owns the patent. What changed was the record, and that record was what the committee needed.
Simplified illustration only. Actual legal outcomes depend on the facts.
Key points to remember
- Inventorship is about who devised the invention; ownership is about who holds the patent.
- Both the applicant or patentee and the person claiming to be the inventor can ask for a mention.
- The Controller may hear the parties before deciding, following the procedure in the Rules.
- A mention wrongly made can be varied or deleted on application.
- Being mentioned as inventor confers no right in the patent itself.
- Any share in income must come from a separate contract or institutional policy.
- A certificate of inventorship can be requested under the current Rules as standalone proof of the mention.
Common mistakes and misunderstandings
- Thinking a named inventor automatically owns a share of the patent or its royalties. The section says plainly that the mention gives no rights in the patent.
- Listing everyone on the team as an inventor. Inventorship follows actual contribution to the claimed invention, and a padded list can be challenged.
- Leaving inventorship to be sorted out after grant. Records fade, people move on, and correcting the list later takes evidence and a proceeding.
Connected provisions
A section of the Act states what the law requires. The detail of complying with it, including forms, periods and office procedure, sits in the Patents Rules, 2003. The Rules are a separate instrument and change far more often, so they are shown alongside rather than folded into the section.
Forms, deadlines and fees
- Form 8
- Form 8A (check the current Second Schedule)
Where a form is required, the Second Schedule to the Patents Rules prescribes it. Superseded versions circulate widely online, so download the current form from the Patent Office and check it against the rule before use.
- Requests and claims about the mention of an inventor must be made within the periods set by the Rules, which should be checked against the current Rules before filing.
Open the deadline calculator — and have every date confirmed against the current Rules before you rely on it.
Any official fee connected with this provision is fixed by the First Schedule to the Patents Rules, not by the provision itself. The amount depends on who the applicant is and on whether the filing is made online or on paper, so no figures are reproduced here. How Indian patent fees work.
Related judgments
This part of the page is reserved for summaries of decided cases. They are added one at a time, after review by a person qualified to confirm that the summary matches the judgment. Nothing has been cleared for this provision so far, so there is nothing to show. How case notes are prepared.
Questions people ask about Section 28
Does being named as an inventor make me an owner of the patent?
No. The section states that a mention as inventor does not confer any rights in the patent. Ownership rests with the applicant or patentee, which is often an employer, a university or a funder. If you want a financial share, it has to come from an employment contract, an institutional revenue-sharing policy, or a negotiated assignment. Being named is recognition, and it is valuable, but it is not equity.
Can I be added as an inventor after the patent is granted?
There is a route to claim a mention, and the Controller may direct that a name be added after hearing the parties. You will need evidence of your actual contribution to the claimed invention: dated notebooks, experimental records, design files, internal presentations and emails. Time limits apply under the Rules, so check the current Rules and act as soon as you learn your name is missing rather than waiting.
What is a certificate of inventorship?
It is a document an inventor can request so that the recognition of inventorship exists in one clear certificate, instead of only being visible inside the patent document and the register. It was introduced by a recent amendment to the Rules and is requested on the prescribed form with the fee prescribed in the First Schedule. It is particularly useful for academic files, grant applications and visa categories that ask for proof of inventive contribution.
What if someone has been named as an inventor wrongly?
The Act allows an application to have a mention varied or deleted where it should not have been made. This matters where a name was added for reasons of hierarchy or courtesy rather than contribution, because a wrong inventor list can be used to attack the patent later. The Controller decides after hearing the parties concerned, following the procedure set out in the Rules.
Are you missing from your own patent?
MYCrave Consultancy prepares inventorship claims, corrections and certificate of inventorship requests with the evidence they need.
You will be speaking with MYCrave Consultancy & Services, the firm that operates this platform. General questions are answered free; matter‑specific work is quoted before anything is done.