Section 68 of the Patents Act, 1970
Assignments, etc., not to be valid unless in writing and duly executed
Makes an assignment, mortgage or licence of a patent invalid unless it is in writing, in one document with all terms, and duly executed.
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.
The authority is the enacted text, not this page. Where our wording and the official provision, or an applicable Gazette notification, do not match, the official material prevails.
What this section says, in plain language
Patents are property, and this section sets the minimum formalities for transferring or encumbering that property. An assignment of a patent or of a share in it, a mortgage, a licence or the creation of any other interest is not valid unless three conditions are met. It must be in writing. It must be reduced to a document that sets out all the terms and conditions governing the rights and obligations of the parties. And it must be duly executed.
The middle requirement does the real work. A one line email saying you may use our patent will not do, and neither will a bare deed that refers to commercial terms sitting in some other paper. The idea is that the whole bargain - scope, territory, duration, royalties, sub-licensing, termination - should be visible in a single executed instrument. Courts have refused to give effect to transfers where the essential terms were scattered or missing.
Duly executed means signed by the parties in the way that binds them, with proper authority. For a company that means signature by a person authorised by the board, and where a common seal is used, the company's articles must be followed. For an individual, the signature should match the person named as the registered proprietor. Where the assignor is abroad, notarisation or legalisation is often required so that the Controller can be satisfied about execution.
The section was amended in 2005 to remove the earlier requirement that the document be registered before it took effect. Registration is now dealt with separately by section 69. So an unrecorded assignment can still be valid between the parties, but registration is what makes it usable against the world and admissible as proof of title. Treat writing plus execution as the validity step, and registration as the enforceability and evidence step.
Why this section matters
Anyone buying, selling, mortgaging or licensing an Indian patent, including startups assigning founder inventions into the company and universities licensing to industry.
At the moment of the transaction, before money moves and before anyone relies on the transfer.
A formality requirement whose failure makes the transfer or licence legally ineffective, not merely difficult to prove.
The buyer may find it never acquired the patent, the licensee may find it has no defence to infringement, and a lender may find its security does not exist.
How it works in practice
A term sheet that was never turned into a deed
Dr Ananya Rao holds a granted patent on a low cost water testing cartridge. She agrees over email with Tarangini Instruments Pvt Ltd, Coimbatore, that they can manufacture and sell it for five years across South India for a royalty of a fixed sum per unit. The email exchange sets out the royalty but says the territory and quality terms will be agreed later. Tarangini starts manufacturing and pays royalties for eighteen months. A dispute then arises when Dr Rao licenses a Chennai competitor. Tarangini claims it had an exclusive licence and sues. The court finds there was no valid licence at all: the arrangement was never reduced to a single executed document containing all the terms, and the territory and exclusivity were left open. Tarangini has no licence to rely on and is exposed on its past manufacturing, while Dr Rao faces her own difficulty because she accepted royalties for eighteen months. A short properly drafted deed at the start would have avoided the entire dispute.
Simplified illustration only. Actual legal outcomes depend on the facts.
Key points to remember
- Oral assignments and oral licences of Indian patents have no legal effect.
- The document must contain all the terms governing the parties' rights and obligations, not just a reference to them.
- It must be duly executed by someone with authority to bind the party.
- Since 2005, registration is no longer part of the validity test - that is now section 69's job.
- The rule applies to mortgages and to the creation of any other interest, not only outright sales.
- Getting the formalities right at the start is far cheaper than fixing them in litigation.
Common mistakes and misunderstandings
- Thinking an email trail or a signed term sheet is enough. It is not, unless it is itself a complete executed agreement.
- Assuming that because a licence is valid between the parties, third parties are bound by it. Effect against third parties depends on being on the register.
- Forgetting employment situations. Where an employee invents, the company still needs a written assignment unless a valid written agreement already vests the rights.
Connected provisions
You will find the related rules grouped below rather than inside the explanation. The separation is deliberate. The Act and the Rules are distinct legal instruments, and mixing them can lead a reader to attribute a procedural requirement to the statute itself.
Forms, deadlines and fees
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.
Amendment history
What changed in this provision, newest first. Read the footnotes in the official consolidated text for the full record.
- 2005The Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005The section was replaced. An assignment or other transfer of an interest in a patent is not valid unless it is in writing and duly executed in a document setting out all the terms.
Compiled from official consolidated texts and Gazette notifications. See the site-wide change log.
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 68
Does the assignment need to be on stamp paper?
The Patents Act does not require stamp paper, but stamp duty is a separate state law question and an unstamped or insufficiently stamped instrument can be inadmissible in evidence until the duty and penalty are paid. Since the whole point of a written assignment is to prove title later, most parties stamp the deed under the law of the state where it is executed. Ask a local adviser about the applicable article and rate before signing.
Can I assign a patent application, or only a granted patent?
Applications are assignable too, and it is common to assign a pending application when a business is sold or when founders transfer inventions to a company. The same discipline applies: a written, complete, duly executed document. Where the applicant changes before grant, there is a separate procedure for recording the change of applicant during prosecution, so the application proceeds in the correct name and the patent is granted to the right party.
Is an exclusive licence different from an assignment?
Yes. An assignment moves ownership; an exclusive licence leaves ownership with the patentee but gives the licensee the sole right to work the invention within the agreed scope. Both need the same formalities under this section. The difference matters later: an exclusive licensee has its own right to sue for infringement under section 109, while an ordinary licensee generally does not.
What if the document is signed but incomplete?
The risk is that a court treats it as ineffective. The section asks for the terms and conditions governing the rights and obligations of the parties to be embodied in the document. If key commercial terms such as scope, duration or consideration are missing or left to a future agreement, the arrangement may fail. The safer course is a short but complete deed, with schedules for detail, rather than a long chain of partial papers.
Is your patent assignment actually valid?
MYCrave Consultancy drafts and reviews patent assignments, licences and security documents so your title holds up when it is tested.
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.