Section 6 of the Patents Act, 1970
Persons entitled to apply for patents
Says who may apply for a patent in India: the true and first inventor, an assignee, or a legal representative of a deceased entitled person.
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
An application is only as good as the right of the person who files it. Section 6 answers the ownership question at the very front of the process by listing the three categories of persons who may apply, either alone or jointly with another. The first is the true and first inventor of the invention. The second is an assignee of the true and first inventor, meaning a person to whom the inventor has transferred the right to apply. The third is the legal representative of a deceased person who, immediately before death, was entitled to make the application.
The word assignee does the heavy lifting in commercial practice. Most applications in India are filed by companies, universities and research institutes rather than by individuals, and they file as assignees. The chain has to be real. Someone must have invented the thing, and that inventor must have transferred the right to apply, whether by an employment agreement, a consultancy contract, a deed of assignment or a written declaration. The Act does not allow an organisation to become an inventor. It allows an organisation to become an applicant by standing in the inventor's shoes.
Joint filing is expressly permitted and is common where two inventors from different institutions collaborate, or where a startup and a university share results. Joint applicants become joint applicants for the whole application, and after grant their relationship is governed by the rules on co-owners. It is far easier to record the intended shares and licensing rights in a written agreement at filing than to unpick a dispute later.
Section 6 works with Section 7, which requires an applicant claiming as assignee to furnish proof of the right to make the application. It also works with Section 28, on naming the inventor in the patent, and with Section 20, which lets the Controller deal with substitution of applicants where entitlement changes or is disputed. Getting entitlement wrong is not a minor technicality: a patent obtained wrongfully can be attacked under Section 64, and Section 52 deals with the case where a patent was obtained in fraud of the true and first inventor.
One point often misunderstood is the difference between being an inventor and being an owner. Inventorship is a question of fact about who devised the invention. Ownership is a question of law and contract about who holds the right. A person can be named as inventor without owning anything, and a company can own everything without appearing as inventor. Section 6 governs who applies; Section 28 governs who is named as the inventor.
Why this section matters
Individual inventors, startups, companies, universities and research institutes, and heirs of a deceased inventor.
At filing, and again whenever ownership changes or a collaboration produces joint results.
The legal standing to apply. Only persons in these categories may file a valid application.
The application may be objected to, entitlement disputes can stall prosecution, and a wrongly obtained patent is vulnerable to revocation.
How it works in practice
A campus collaboration files correctly
Two researchers, Meera Iyer at IIT Kanpur and Devansh Kulkarni at Kestrel Robotics Pvt Ltd in Pune, jointly develop a lightweight gripper for warehouse robots. Meera devised the compliant joint; Devansh devised the control routine. Both are true and first inventors of parts of the invention. Neither wants to file personally. Meera's employment terms assign her institutional research output to IIT Kanpur, and Devansh's contract assigns his work to Kestrel. The application is therefore filed jointly by IIT Kanpur and Kestrel Robotics as assignees, with Meera and Devansh named as inventors. Before filing, the two organisations sign a short agreement recording equal shares, who will pay renewal fees, and how any licence will be approved. When the Patent Office later asks for proof of the applicants' right to apply, the assignment documents are already on file. Had Kestrel filed alone, Meera's contribution and IIT Kanpur's assignment would have left the application open to challenge.
Simplified illustration only. Actual legal outcomes depend on the facts.
Key points to remember
- Only the true and first inventor, an assignee, or a legal representative of a deceased entitled person may apply.
- Applications may be made alone or jointly, and joint filing is normal in collaborations.
- A company cannot be an inventor; it can only be an applicant standing in an inventor's place.
- The right to apply must be traceable through employment terms, contracts or a written assignment.
- Inventorship and ownership are separate questions and are dealt with by different sections.
- Entitlement problems can lead to substitution proceedings, opposition or revocation.
Common mistakes and misunderstandings
- Naming the company as the inventor. Inventors are natural persons; the company is the applicant.
- Assuming an employer automatically owns everything an employee invents without any written term. India has no detailed statutory employee-invention code, so the contract matters.
- Leaving out a genuine co-inventor to keep the paperwork simple. This creates a serious and lasting vulnerability.
- Believing entitlement can always be fixed later. It often can, but only through formal proceedings and with delay and cost.
Connected provisions
Indian patent law works in two layers. The Act carries the substance and the Rules carry the machinery. Because the layers are amended by different processes and at different times, they are presented in separate blocks instead of being merged into one description.
Forms, deadlines and fees
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.
This site does not carry a fee table. The First Schedule to the Patents Rules is the source, the rates vary with the applicant's category and with the mode of filing, and a figure quoted second-hand goes out of date quietly. How Indian patent fees work.
Related judgments
No judgment summaries appear here yet. Our process requires a legal review of each case note before publication, covering the citation, the court and the point actually decided. Until a note for this provision has passed that check, the section stays empty rather than carrying unverified material. How case notes are prepared.
Questions people ask about Section 6
Can a company file a patent application in India?
Yes, as an assignee. A company cannot be an inventor because inventing is done by natural persons, but it can apply if the inventors have transferred the right to apply to it. That transfer usually comes from employment terms, a consultancy agreement or a separate deed of assignment. The company is entered as the applicant, the individual inventors are named as inventors, and the Patent Office may ask for proof of the company's right to apply under Section 7.
Can two people file a patent application together in India?
Yes. Section 6 expressly allows an application to be made alone or jointly with any other person. Joint filing is common between co-inventors, between a company and a university, and between collaborating firms. After grant the relationship between joint owners is governed by the co-ownership provisions, under which each owner generally has an equal undivided share and neither can grant a licence without the other's consent. A written agreement at filing avoids most later disputes.
What happens if an inventor dies before the patent is granted?
Section 6 allows the legal representative of a deceased person who was entitled to make the application to apply. Where an applicant dies after filing but before grant, Section 44 deals with amendment of a patent granted to a deceased applicant, and the Controller can be approached to substitute the legal representative. The representative will need to show the entitlement, typically through succession documents, and should act promptly so that prosecution deadlines are not missed.
Does an employer automatically own an employee's invention in India?
Not automatically in every case. The Patents Act does not contain a detailed code allocating employee inventions, so the position is largely governed by the employment contract and general principles of employment and contract law. Well-drafted employment terms assign inventions made in the course of employment to the employer and require the employee to sign confirmatory assignments. Where the contract is silent, ownership can become genuinely contested, especially for work done outside the employee's assigned duties.
Who should be named on your patent application?
MYCrave Consultancy sorts out inventorship, assignment chains and joint ownership before you file.
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