Rule 68 of the Patents Rules, 2003
Form of application to be made under section 28(7)
Explains how an application is made to have a wrongly recorded mention of a person as inventor corrected or removed.
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.
This explanation is written for clarity, not for citation. The official statutory text and any Gazette notification in force on your date govern, and they prevail over anything said here.
What this rule requires, step by step
Section 28 works in both directions. It lets a true inventor be added, and it also allows a mention that should never have been made to be undone. Section 28(7) is that corrective valve, and Rule 68 fixes the manner in which the application to the Controller is made. Without it, a wrong name entered once would sit on the public record permanently.
Names get onto patents wrongly for ordinary reasons. A consultant who only reviewed a design is listed out of courtesy. A departing colleague's name is copied over from an earlier draft. A supervisor is added because that is the laboratory custom. Sometimes the reason is less innocent, and a name is added or kept to support a claim to credit that the facts do not carry.
The application must be made in the manner the Rules prescribe, with the fee in the First Schedule, and should set out plainly who is named, why that mention should not have been made, and what the applicant wants done. Check the current list of forms in the Second Schedule before filing, since the Patent Office prescribes which form covers a given request and keeps that list up to date. Where no specific form is prescribed for a request, the Office's general-purpose form is used.
Removing a name is a serious step that affects a person's reputation, so it is never done without notice. The Controller applies the hearing procedure in Rule 69: the person named is told, may reply, and is heard before anything is changed. If the Controller is satisfied, the mention is corrected in the patent and in the Patent Office records.
Why this rule matters
Patentees, companies and institutions carrying an incorrect inventor name, and anyone with an interest in the accuracy of a patent's record.
After a name is discovered to have been wrongly included, often during an audit, a merger, a licensing negotiation or a dispute.
A route to ask the Controller to certify that a mention should not have been made and to have the record put right.
The wrong person keeps public credit, incentive payments and award claims can flow from it, and the error can be used against the patentee in later proceedings.
How it works in practice
A courtesy name that caused trouble
A textile MSME in Coimbatore develops an energy-saving attachment for its looms. When it files the patent application, it lists the machinery consultant who visited the unit twice as an inventor, purely out of courtesy for his advice on suppliers. Three years later the consultant, now working with a competing unit, begins telling customers that he invented the attachment and lists the patent in his own marketing brochure. The MSME reviews its records: the design sketches, the trial logs and the workshop notes all come from its own two technicians, and the consultant's emails deal only with vendor prices. The company applies under section 28(7) with a statement of these facts and copies of the records. The Controller sends the application to the consultant, who files a reply, and both sides are heard. The Controller finds that no inventive contribution was made and directs that the mention be corrected. The patent record now names the two technicians alone.
Simplified illustration only. Actual legal outcomes depend on the facts.
Key points to remember
- Section 28(7) is the way to undo a mention of a person as inventor that should not have been made.
- Rule 68 fixes the manner of the application; check the Second Schedule for the current form and the First Schedule for the fee.
- Set out the facts precisely and support them with records made at the time.
- The person named is always given notice and a hearing before the record is changed.
- The proceeding decides naming only; it does not decide ownership or money.
Common mistakes and misunderstandings
- Trying to remove a name quietly by writing a letter. The Controller cannot act on one side's version without notice to the person affected.
- Using section 28(7) to punish a former colleague in a commercial dispute. The Controller looks only at whether the person contributed to the claimed invention.
- Assuming the patent becomes invalid because a name is wrong. Naming errors are corrected under section 28; they are not, by themselves, a ground to revoke a patent.
Connected provisions
Rules and sections are cited differently and amended differently. On a rule page the connected sections are therefore kept in a separate list, so that a reader quoting this material can attribute each requirement to the correct instrument.
Forms, deadlines and fees
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
Case summaries are published only after a qualified reviewer has checked the judgment, the citation and the way the holding is described. Nothing has cleared that review for this provision yet, so nothing is listed here. We would rather show no case note than one that misstates what a court decided. How case notes are prepared.
Questions people ask about Rule 68
Can a name be removed from a granted patent?
Yes. Section 28(7) allows an application to the Controller for a certificate that a mention of a person as inventor should not have been made, and the record can then be corrected. Rule 68 sets out how the application is made. The Controller will not act on assertion alone: the person named must be told, may file a reply, and is entitled to be heard under Rule 69. Bring records made at the time of the invention, because the question is whether that person contributed to the invention the claims cover.
Does a wrong inventor name make the patent invalid?
Not by itself. Indian law treats inventorship and validity as separate questions. A patent is judged on novelty, inventive step, industrial application and the exclusions in section 3, not on whether the list of inventors is complete. That is exactly why section 28 provides an administrative route to add or remove a mention. A naming error can still cause practical harm, though, because it can be used to attack the patentee's credibility and, in serious cases, can feed an allegation that the patent was wrongfully obtained.
Who can apply under section 28(7)?
The route is not limited to the patentee. A person who has an interest in the accuracy of the record, including another named inventor whose contribution is being diluted, can move the Controller. Whoever applies must set out the facts clearly and support them, because the effect of the application is to take public credit away from a named individual. Expect the process to be contested, and expect the Controller to weigh contemporaneous documents such as design records, laboratory notebooks and internal disclosure forms far more heavily than later statements.
Wrong name recorded as inventor on your patent?
MYCrave Consultancy prepares section 28(7) applications and handles the hearing before the Controller from start to finish.
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.