A patent is personal property and may be sold to others or mortgaged; it
may be bequeathed by a will, and it may pass to the heirs of a deceased
patentee. The patent law provides for the transfer or sale of a patent,
or of an application for patent, by an instrument in writing. Such an
instrument is referred to as an assignment and may transfer the entire
interest in the patent. The assignee, when the patent is assigned to him
or her, becomes the owner of the patent and has the same rights that the
original patentee had.
The statute also provides for the assignment of a part interest, that
is, a half interest, a fourth interest, etc., in a patent. There may
also be a grant which conveys the same character of interest as an
assignment but only for a particularly specified part of the United
States.
A mortgage of patent property passes ownership thereof to the mortgagee
or lender until the mortgage has been satisfied and a retransfer from
the mortgagee back to the mortgagor, the borrower, is made. A
conditional assignment also passes ownership of the patent and is
regarded as absolute until canceled by the parties or by the decree of a
competent court.
An assignment, grant, or conveyance of any patent or application for
patent should be acknowledged before a notary public or officer
authorized to administer oaths or perform notarial acts. The certificate
of such acknowledgment constitutes prima facie evidence of the execution
of the assignment, grant, or conveyance.