Section 59, The Patents and Industrial Design Act, 2012

(1) All contracts assigning applications, patents orindustrial designs shall be in writing and shall be signed by the parties to the contracts otherwise they shall not be valid. (2) Any change in the ownership of an application, a patent or an industrial design shall be recorded in the respective Register, on payment of the prescribed fee and, in the case of an application, published by the Registrar. (3) The change in ownership shall have no effect against third parties until such recording is effected. (4) In the absence of any agreement to the contrary between the parties, joint owners of an application or a patent or industrial design may separately transfer their shares, exploit or prevent any person from exploiting the protected patent or industrial design but may only jointly grant permission to any third person to exploit the patent or design.