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Submitting a Patent Transfer Request

Things to Know Before Submitting a Transfer Request

A Patent Transfer Request should be submitted when you are seeking to transfer your Patent Report to another organization, though there is no change in ownership rights to the patent. This may occur if you are still an owner of a patent, but you and a co-owner have agreed that the co-owner will now take the lead in iEdison reporting for that particular patent (maybe your inventor was prosecuted out of this patent application or for some reason they have part of the patent family in their iEdison account, and you have another part of the patent family in yours). If you are wanting to assign all of your rights/ownership in the patent to an Inventor or Third Party, you should submit a Patent Assignment Request instead of a Patent Transfer Request. If you are wanting to transfer a patent from one invention to another invention also owned and reported under your Organization's iEdison account, you do not need to submit a request, you merely need to move the patent to the other invention. See Moving a Patent to Another Invention Within Your Organization.

Be sure to communicate and coordinate with the Organization to whom you wish to transfer the patent.  They should agree to be responsible and take the lead in iEdison reporting for this patent, because they will be required to accept receipt of the patent in iEdison prior to agency review of the Patent Transfer Request.  You should also confirm the Organization's iEdison Organization Code (7-8 digit number) to ensure that you are asking that the invention be transferred to the correct Organization and the associated Invention Report Number under which this Patent Report should be transferred.

NOTE: You are required to provide a reason explaining why you are requesting the transfer in the "Request Reasons/Comments" field. Supporting Documentation is not necessarily required to submit a Transfer Request, though it may be requested at the funding agency's discretion.

To submit a Patent Transfer Request, complete the following steps:

  1. Click the "Add Request" button on the Patent Report
  2. Select "Transfer" and enter the required information
  3. Click "Save"

1. Click the "Add Request" button on the Patent Report

Under the Requests section of the Patent Report, click the "Add Request" button.

Add request screenshot.

2. Select "Transfer" and enter the required information

After clicking the "Add Request" button, a popup window will open requiring you to select the request type and enter additional information (depending on the request).

Select "Transfer" from the pulldown menu. A field will appear requiring you to enter the Invention Report number of the invention you wish to transfer to. The receiving invention must belong to another Organization. (To transfer a patent to an invention already belonging to your Organization, see Moving a Patent to Another Invention Within Your Organization.)

Patent transfer screenshot.

If you have a support document, click the "Support Document" button to upload.

In the "Request Reasons/Comments" field, you're required to briefly explain the reason for the Transfer Request.

3. Click "Save"

Click the "Save" button on the popup window.

The recipient Organization will then receive a notification to accept the transfer (for information on how a recipient Organization accepts/rejects a transfer see Receiving a Patent Assignment/Transfer/Void Request. If they accept the transfer, a notification will be sent to the Primary Funding Agency notifying them of the Patent Transfer Request. If the recipient Organization rejects the transfer, the Patent Transfer Request will not be sent to the Funding Agency for review.

While the Funding Agency's decision is pending, you may click the "Edit" button to make changes, or if you feel the request was made in error, you may click the "Withdraw" button. If you wish to check on the status of the request, you may click the "Agency Decision" button to view an update.

If approved, you will receive a notification indicating the approval, and the Patent Report will be transferred to the recipient Organization.   You will no longer have access to the active Patent Report, however, the transferred Patent Report will be searchable/viewable as a transferred/assigned record.

Read only patent report screenshot.

If for some reason the request is rejected, you will receive a notification indicating the rejection. The Decision and the Rejection Reasons will be displayed next to the Request in the Patent Report.

Patent transfer request screenshot.
Credit: iEdison
Created April 5, 2022, Updated December 19, 2023