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The answer is that public recordation of a patent assignment is not required for the assignment to be a valid transfer of ownership. See, e.g., this discussion in the Manual for Patent Examination Procedure:
Recordation of the assignment provides legal notice to the public of the assignment. It should be noted that recording of the assignment is merely a ...
3
If there are co-inventors, patent law is relevant to the question. Under U.S. patent law co-inventors have equal and separate rights to the invention. Either can make, sell, use, offer for sale, or import it, absent any agreement between them. Also, either could license anyone else with no need to coordinate or share proceeds with the other. Assigning the ...
3
From a patent law point of view?
None.
It doesn't matter for prosecution or litigation if you are a legal or natural person.
From a financial point of view?
There might be fee related benefits for natural persons (micro entity), that might not apply for a corporation in some places (US).
Also, there might be ways to optimize taxes on the costs or ...
3
Are they possibly using this as a reason to get me to sign it and
maybe sell the patent?
Usually, when we do this it's because paperwork got misplaced in an acquisition or otherwise. The per-patent assignment (at least for us) is a second layer of protection, as our employment agreement requires the employee to assign all relevant IP rights to the company. ...
2
Interestingly, the cover sheet for this patent is missing, which contains most of the pertinent information for calculating the expiration date of a patent. However, from checking the information available on Google Patents against the content of the grant, we can calculate the expiration date using the following information:
Publication date: May 17, 1977 (...
2
Patents are rights which can be transferred from one entity to another. After assignment of such rights its important to notify patent office about such assignments. for US Patent these assignments are listed in Assignment database. you are recommended to read help on how to search
Another way to find such information is to look into PUBLIC PAIR assignment ...
2
Is inheritance of a patent (assigned to an individual) possible?
Yes.
A patent is personal property, per 35 USC § 261:
Subject to the provisions of this title, patents shall have the attributes of personal property.
When the owner of a piece of personal property dies, the property passes like any other property. If the deceased person has a will, the ...
1
I'm formalizing George White's comment as an answer since it is so useful. As George White points out, those are US utility patents, not design patents. Go to the USPTO Patent Assignment Search page, select "Look up by Patent Number" and type in the patent number (digits only). It's really easy. Looking at the first number you get the following ...
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Applicant and assignee are not the same thing. To change the applicant you will need to file a "request to take action" from the new assignee and a new ADS. See MPEP
325 Establishing Right of Assignee To Take Action in Application Filed On or After September 16, 2012 [R-10.2019]
An assignee who is not the original applicant must become the ...
1
If you were an employee, even without an agreement, the work you did for the company as part of your job belongs to the company. As a contractor, depending on your state, it might be different.
It seems to me that if you were compensated for your work and your conceptual contribution to the invention was part of that work, I think you have already been paid ...
1
There is no requirement to record assignments with USPTO. The assignee information on the face of the patent is taken directly from the form the applicant sends back with the issue fee payment.
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The linked document is an application. The issued patent is US9702961B2. If you believe it infringes on a patent your company owns, then the assignee will need to get a license in order to utilize it. Its up to your company to initiate a law suit if you think your intellectual property is being infringed. I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is that ...
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Since this patent was filed prior to June 8th, 1995, the term of the patent was 17 years from the date of ISSUANCE, not filing date. Thus if it went through a long examination period, which was common back then (prosecution periods of five or more years were not uncommon), the patent could still be in effect and enforceable. Also, any continuation patent ...
1
It is not unusual for companies to buy the rights for inventions that are not patented, including those that appear in one or more provisionals or in pending non-provisional applications. Similarly, it is not unusual for a VC firm to appraise a portfolio of provisional applications for investment purposes, i.e., to buy shares of the company owning the ...
1
You generally don't find expiration dates on patents or in the Public Pair. This is unfortunate. Unless there is an extension, the patents cited will expire 20 years from their priority date. For both of these patents that should be March 10th, 2024. Similarly, any patent arising from the published application US 2016-0095523 will also expire no later than ...
1
Yes, you can assign a patent application to a third party at any time (i.e., before filing, after filing or after it issues as a patent.
However, keep in mind that the true inventors must still be named at these will not change based on the assignee. The assignee can also be named as "applicant" of for a pending application.
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You can assign it to anybody for any reason.
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Yes, there are economic reasons for this. I can give a few, but it really is impossible to answer completely.
Tax
The ultimate aim can be unrelated to the IP at all, but simply for tax avoidance.
Broadly, companies are taxed on their profits. Expenses reduce profits, and therefore reduce the tax due. But if the expense comes from within the corporate ...
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On the Google Patents page for this patent, look under Legal Events and you will see:
Nov 13, 2007 FP Expired due to failure to pay maintenance fee
Effective date: 20070921
The patent is expired since September 9, 2007.
If you are interested in the detailed history of the patent, refer to the USPTO Public Pair database.
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This application was filed only in Canada and never granted. It has been considered to be a dead application since April 29, 2009, due to CIPO being unable to deliver the Maintenance Fee Reminder (returned to sender, moved/address unknown). You can find all of this information in CIPO.
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Your Query contains Two Issues:-
1. Can Any person revive Patent after not paying Maintenance fees?
YES but in certain circumstances and not after 2 years.
For more information see Failure to pay maintenance fees
MPEP2590 Acceptance of Delayed Payment of Maintenance Fee in Expired Patent to Reinstate Patent
II. UNINTENTIONAL DELAY ...
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