Patent pledge

A patent can be the subject of a pledge in order to guarantee repayment of a debt to a creditor. A creditor will thus benefit, on one or more of its debtor's patents, from a right to preferential payment resulting from the constitution of this accessory real right. The pledge of intangible property is provided for by article 2355 of the Civil Code, which defines it as "the assignment, as security for an obligation, of intangible movable property or a group of intangible movable property, present or future" . The pledge of a patent, as a security interest, does not benefit from an exclusive common law regime: its creation requires compliance with the provisions of the Civil Code supplemented by articles L.613-8 and L613-9 of the Intellectual Property Code, which require the drafting of a writing and its entry in the national patent register for opposability purposes. In addition, article L.613-21 sets out the terms and conditions for realizing the security, should the secured debt not be honored.