Rule 77 of the Patents Rules, 2003
Manner of application under section 51(2)
Provides the way to ask the Controller to have a document signed or a step taken for a co-owner who refuses to cooperate.
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This explanation is written for clarity, not for citation.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
Directions are useless if nobody carries them out. Section 51(2) deals with the co-owner who will not sign. Where a person registered as a grantee or proprietor of a patent fails to execute a document or to do anything else needed to give effect to directions or to deal with the patent, the Controller may, on the application of a person interested, empower someone else to do that act in the name and on behalf of the person in default. Rule 77 sets out how that application is made, with the fee prescribed in the First Schedule.
This is the practical remedy that gives section 51 its teeth. A licence agreement that cannot be signed, an assignment that cannot be executed, an application form that needs every proprietor's signature, a document a foreign licensee insists on having from all owners: any of these can be stalled indefinitely by a co-owner who has moved abroad, lost interest, fallen out with the others, or simply stopped replying to email.
The application should identify the patent, the document or act in question, the person in default, and the attempts already made to obtain their cooperation, with dates. Attach the correspondence. Explain why the act is necessary and who should be empowered to do it. The person in default is entitled to notice and to be heard under Rule 78, and only after that will the Controller consider empowering someone else to sign in their name.
Two limits apply. The Controller is enforcing the ordinary working of the patent, not reallocating ownership; the defaulting co-owner keeps their share and their entitlement to their part of the proceeds. And, as with section 51 generally, the Controller works within any agreement the co-owners have already made rather than around it. Where the dispute is really about money or breach of contract, a civil court, not the Controller, is the right forum.
Why this rule matters
Co-owners, licensees and buyers held up by a proprietor who will not sign, including estates where one heir is untraceable.
After reasonable attempts to obtain the co-owner's signature have failed and a transaction or filing is stuck.
A power in the Controller to authorise another person to execute a document or do an act in the name of the defaulting proprietor.
Deals collapse, licensees walk away, and a valuable patent becomes untransactable while its term continues to run down.
How it works in practice
The co-owner who stopped replying
Three engineers who met at a Hyderabad incubator jointly own a patent for a soil moisture sensor. Two of them still run the venture; the third took a job in Canada and has not answered a message in two years. A drip irrigation manufacturer in Belagavi agrees to take an exclusive licence and its lawyers require the signature of all three proprietors. The two active co-owners write to the third by email and by registered post at his last recorded address, then send a formal notice through their patent agent. Nothing comes back. They apply to the Controller under section 51(2), attaching the licence draft, the record of every attempt to reach him with dates, and proof of despatch, and ask that one of them be empowered to execute the licence on his behalf. The Controller issues notice to the absent co-owner and holds a hearing. He does not appear. The Controller empowers the applicant to sign in his name, while recording that his one-third share of the royalty continues to be his.
Simplified illustration only. Actual legal outcomes depend on the facts.
Key points to remember
- Section 51(2) is used when a registered proprietor will not execute a document or do a required act.
- The Controller can empower another person to act in the defaulting proprietor's name and on their behalf.
- Rule 77 sets the manner of the application and the fee is in the First Schedule.
- Document every attempt to obtain cooperation, with dates and proof of despatch.
- The defaulting co-owner is heard first under Rule 78 and keeps their ownership share and their part of the proceeds.
Common mistakes and misunderstandings
- Signing on a co-owner's behalf without an order. Only the Controller can authorise it, and signing without authority can amount to a serious wrong.
- Applying after one unanswered email. The Controller expects to see genuine and documented efforts to obtain cooperation.
- Expecting the order to strip the defaulting co-owner of their share. The power is to get the act done, not to redistribute ownership.
Connected provisions
The Patents Rules supply procedure and the Patents Act supplies power. This page covers the procedure, and the sections that give the Controller or the applicant the underlying right or duty are grouped separately so you can move between the two.
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.
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 Rule 77
A co-owner refuses to sign our patent licence. What can we do?
Section 51(2) is designed for exactly this. Where a registered proprietor fails to execute a document or do something needed in relation to the patent, any person interested may apply to the Controller, and the Controller may empower another person to do that act in the name of the one in default. Rule 77 sets out how the application is made and the fee comes from the First Schedule. Before applying, build a record: written requests, reminders, a formal notice, and proof of delivery, all with dates. The Controller will hear the co-owner before making any order.
What if a co-owner cannot be traced at all?
The same route is available, and an untraceable proprietor is one of the clearest cases for it. Show the Controller what you have done to find and contact the person: emails, registered post to the last address on record, notice through a patent agent, and any attempt through known relatives or former employers. The Controller will issue notice as required by Rule 78 before deciding. Absence does not automatically mean the order will be made, but a proprietor who is properly served and does not appear cannot later complain that they were not heard.
Does an order under section 51(2) take away the co-owner's rights?
No. The power is procedural, not proprietary. It allows a particular document to be executed or a particular act to be done so that the patent can be used, when the person who should have done it will not. The defaulting proprietor keeps their undivided share in the patent and remains entitled to their part of whatever the transaction earns. If you want to end the co-ownership altogether, that is a different exercise involving assignment of the share and registration of title, and it needs either agreement or a civil remedy.
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