[Pct] Can applicant name for US national-phase entry differ from applicant name for PCT application?

[Scott Nielson]

You should not list a different applicant on the ADS when you file a 371 application (as I found out the hard way). You need to list the applicant listed on the PCT application and then follow the requirements to change the name of the applicant.

In my case, the PCT application listed the inventors as the applicants for purposes of the U.S. I listed the company as the applicant in the ADS when I filed the 371 application and received a filing receipt acknowledging the company as the applicant. Later, after I paid the issue fee, I received a notice that the USPTO mistakenly granted a request to change the applicant and it had reverted the change so that the inventors were now the applicants. I had to reply to the notice with everything required to change the applicant.


Scott Nielson

801-660-4400

________________________________
From: Pct <pct-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> on behalf of Krista Jacobsen via Pct <pct at oppedahl-lists.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2025 6:22 PM
To: Pct at oppedahl-lists.com <pct at oppedahl-lists.com>
Cc: Krista Jacobsen <krista at jacobseniplaw.com>
Subject: [Pct] Can applicant name for US national-phase entry differ from applicant name for PCT application?

I am preparing the paperwork to enter the national phase in the U.S. from a PCT application.

When the PCT application was filed, the name of the company was "Oldname." The inventors executed an assignment to Oldname. After the PCT application was filed, the company changed its name to "Newname." It's the same entity, just with a different name.

As Oldname doesn't exist anymore, I want to name Newname as the applicant in the ADS that will accompany the national-phase filing in the U.S.

Will there be any USPTO snafus because the applicant of the PCT application does not match the applicant named in the U.S. national-phase entry papers? I couldn't find anything in the MPEP that addresses this situation, so I wanted to check with the brain trust. I'm hoping someone has had this situation before, or perhaps a situation in which the PCT application was assigned to a different entity prior to national-phase entry, and you named the new owner as the applicant.

It seems like this shouldn't be an issue, but the USPTO seems to have endless ways to surprise me.

Thanks in advance.

Best regards,
Krista

------------------------------------------
Krista S. Jacobsen
Attorney and Counselor at Law
Jacobsen IP Law
krista at jacobseniplaw.com<mailto:krista at jacobseniplaw.com>
T:  408.455.5539
www.jacobseniplaw.com<http://www.jacobseniplaw.com/>
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