Tuesday, May 02, 2017 J 12/16 - Same patent transferred twice to different parties

Finding the right transfer

The EPO was confronted in this case with a patent that was transferred twice. After sending out the intention to grant, the EPO received a first transfer on 01.06.2015 from the applicant to a second party. About a week later, on 10.06.2015 the EPO received a second transfer of the same patent but to a different, third party. 

Unfortunately, for the second party, there is a problem with his transfer (the fee wasn't timely paid). Although the third party sent its transfer later, the formal requirements were satisfied sooner. According to Rule 22 EPC a transfer request is not deemed to have been filed until the fee has been paid, and so it is the second transfer request that is executed.  

Of course the second party is not happy with this, the more so that his contract with the applicant was signed much sooner, on 5.6.2014. The second contract with the third party was signed only the day before it was registered, i.e., on 09.06.2015. The second party appeals the rejection of his transfer, but in the meantime the patent has been granted in the name of the third party. 

The appeal board does not side with the unlucky second party; for transfers it is first come first serve. Since the third party satisfied the requirements sooner, his request wins. Nonetheless, the board is not happy with the way the case has been dealt with. Because the patent granted, the EPO lost its competency regarding transfers. This made the appeal pointless. 

The board offers the following catch phrase (my translation)

During the time period for filing an appeal against the simultaneous rejection of request of a transfer and of a stay of proceedings, and because of the suspensive effect of a still-to-be-filed appeal, the register should not be changed in a way that could affect the course of a subsequent appeal procedure.

Tuesday, November 03, 2015 J 22/14 - Back and forth in the register

Can the legal division correct a transfer recorded in the register, if it later doubts the transfer was legal? In this unusual set of circumstances a transfer of a patent application is contested by the parties. We will refer to the parties as the appellant and the respondent.

Originally, a direct European patent application was filed in the name of the respondent.  About 5 years later, the same representative filed a request to transfer the application from the name of the respondent to that of the appellant. As proof of the transfer selected pages of an Assignment Agreement were filed. 

Just over a year later, a request is filed with the legal division to revert the transfer. It is argued that filing only selected pages of the agreement is not sufficient and that authorizations were both lacking and not substantiated. The request is accompanied with an injunction of a Kantonsgerichts in Zug that purportedly proved that the agreement was signed for the respondent by someone who was not authorized to do so.

The legal division reverts the transfer because there is no national (court) decision that the transfer was valid.  (Bis zum Nachweis einer entsprechenden nationalen Entscheidung is daher der Rechtsübergang nicht i.S.v. Regel 22 EPÜ hinreichend nachgewiesen.)

The appellant requests an appealable decision and subsequently appeals it. The board reverts the decision of the legal division, and reverts the reversion.

Similar decisions between the same parties were made for patent applications in J 16/14, J 21/14, J 20/14, J 17/14, and for patents in J 18/14, J 19/14.