When an assignment was never recorded: what to do first
An unrecorded assignment leaves the register naming someone who no longer owns the mark. Fix that first, before anything else. Locate the signed transfer, confirm both parties still exist and cooperate, and file the recordal request with the office holding the registration. Until that entry changes, enforcement, licensing and customs action all rest on the wrong name.
This is not a paperwork delay you can leave for later. Every week the register stays wrong is a week in which someone else — an infringer, a customs officer, a licensee — is entitled to rely on the old name as if it were still true.
The register, not the contract, decides who counts as owner
Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 (EUTMR) treats an assignment as effective between the parties from the date they sign it. Effect against third parties, including anyone checking the register before buying, licensing or suing, follows only once the change is entered.
Customs authorities work the same way. Under Regulation (EU) No 608/2013, an application for border action stands or falls on who the register names as the rights holder on that day. A signed contract you can produce later does not retroactively grant standing you lacked when you needed it.
What changes once the transfer sits unrecorded
Three positions carry different exposure, and none of them is safe by default.
| Your position | What the register still shows | Immediate exposure |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer holding a signed agreement | The previous owner's name | No standing to stop an infringer or request customs action |
| Seller who signed and moved on | Your own name, unchanged | Notices, disputes and third-party claims still arrive addressed to you |
| Licensee under the new owner | A licensor who is not the registered owner | The licence itself can be challenged for want of title |
None of these positions resolves itself with time. Each one gets harder to fix the longer the register stays wrong, particularly once a third party has already acted on the old entry.
What to do first
- Retrieve the signed assignment document and confirm it identifies the mark, the parties and the effective date without ambiguity.
- Check the current entry at the office holding the registration and note exactly who is named as owner today.
- Prepare the recordal request required by that office, attaching the assignment or an extract sufficient to prove the transfer.
- Submit the request together with the applicable fee, calculated under that office's own published schedule.
- If the other party will not cooperate, gather independent evidence of the transfer — invoices, correspondence, prior public statements of ownership — before submitting.
- If a customs application, opposition or infringement action is already pending, record the assignment before advancing that action, not alongside it.
Who decides, and on what evidence
For an EU mark, recordal is examined by the office administering the register under Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 (EUTMR). The examiner checks only whether the submitted document proves the transfer it claims. It does not rule on whether the underlying sale was fair or complete.
The deadline that matters here is not a fixed number of days. It is the date from which continuous ownership must be shown once a dispute starts. That date runs from signature, not from filing, so a late recordal does not reset the clock — it only fixes who can rely on it going forward.
If your situation differs
If the portfolio also includes a patent offered to you for sale, the same title check applies: What to do first in this situation and what a seller must show before signing follows the identical logic.
If the mark is licensed into a technology integration where an outside partner holds credentials, add that risk to the file: When an integration partner leaks credentials: what to do first sits next to this question, not instead of it.
If the brand also appears in a tokenised offering, the same register question resurfaces under different rules: When a partner distributes the token and its limits explains where that boundary sits.
What this page does not decide
This page does not settle whether the underlying sale was valid, fully paid, or free of defect — that is a contract question, not a register question. It does not cover national marks outside the EU system, where recordal rules differ by office.
For continuous-ownership evidence built against a specific national asset register, see Asset in United Arab Emirates and the deadline for establishing continuous ownership recognised by that registry.
Verified: 4 March 2025. Sources: Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 (EUTMR); Regulation (EU) No 608/2013.
Related situations
A related border question follows the same recordal logic. When a trade fair seizure is threatened and its resolution turns on exactly the same register entry.
Before you act
Every day the register carries the wrong name is a day someone else can act on it. If you need a first reaction, our partners reply within minutes during working hours. A firm price for the recordal file follows within one working day.
Frequently asked questions
What is the first step when an assignment was never recorded?
Retrieve the signed transfer document and check the current register entry before doing anything else. Recordal cannot proceed without both.
Which deadline is already running?
Continuous ownership is measured from the date the assignment was signed, not from the date it is filed. That clock is already running whether or not the register has caught up.
Who decides, and on what evidence?
The office administering the register decides, based only on whether the submitted document proves the transfer it claims. It does not examine the fairness of the underlying sale.