Buying other people's patents

Transferring ownership

If you buy or acquire a patent, there are benefits to telling us that you are the new owner so that we can record the change of ownership on the register of patents. This includes any change of ownership as a result of company mergers. The legal term for a transfer of ownership is an assignment.

Fill in Form 21

To tell us a patent has been bought or sold you need to send us a form 21. There is a fee of GBP £50 per form.

Form 21 is not a replacement for the assignment, merely the form that you should use to ask us to record it.

The assignor or their representative should sign the form. If any of them cannot do so, we will accept other documents as proof that the assignment has taken place.

Any material filed may be open to public inspection, including on our website.

Please note that any documents filed as evidence of the transfer will be destroyed in due course. Original documents are not required, we will accept photocopies of the evidence you file.

Send us your request

Intellectual Property Office
Concept House
Cardiff Road
Newport
South Wales
NP10 8QQ
United Kingdom

What happens next?

We will record the details of the assignment in the register of patents and write to confirm that we have done so.