Question
Company S used to have a wholly owned subsidiary in the UK (“S-UK.”) S eventually shut down S-UK. S-UK held a number of patent assets.
S dissolved the S-UK legal entity circa 2010. The liquidator hired for this process did not have S-UK sign any forms expressly assigning the S-UK held patent assets to S. The liquidator claims that they were not aware of any S-UK intangible assets, including any patents. We have not found any “catch-all” assignments where S-UK assigned all of its assets, or all remaining assets, to S. We did find a board resolution authorizing the liquidator to distribute all of the assets of S-UK to its owners (of which there was just S at that time.)
We would like to register S as the owner of these patent assets. They are mostly in the U.S., EP (France, Germany, UK, mostly via the EPC). There are also some in JP, AU, CA, MX, TW.
Is there an easy way to do so under this scenario?
Answers: 3 public & 1 private
Requirements for assignment vary from country to country, and, yes, the most important thing is to establish a clear chain of title - which can become cumbersome and expensive.
Thus, for a start it should be checked whether the patent applications and patents are still alive or revivable. Again, requirements (e.g. for timely filing responses to office actions and paying renewal fees) vary from country to country. As S-UK was disolved about six ago, many of the patent assets may be in "bad shape".
So, contact a patent attorney and provide all basic details that you are aware of (applicant name, patent application number, patent numbers...)
Recent questions
I am looking for ...
3 6115 2