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Topic: Quitclaim (Read 10224 times) |
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Bill Richards
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Posts: 758
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Anyone ever heard of a quitclaim type document in the patent context? That is, whatever rights I do have in this invention, if any, I assign to so-and-so.
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William B. Richards, P.E.
The Richards Law Firm
Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights
614/939-1488
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TataBoxInhibitor
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Posts: 456
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Re: Quitclaim
« Reply #1 on: Aug 10th, 2006, 3:46pm » |
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That vocabulary does not fit in the patent context. Obviously, a quitclaim deed transfers as you have described, but in the land property context, a quitclaim does not provide the buyer any present or future covenants to sue on. As such, the land could be subject to multiple interests, i.e. adverse possession or other encumbrances, i.e. zoning regs, liens, etc
In the intellectual property context, it would seem you either own it or you either assigned it or licensed it. I am not sure how many other interests could be involved, that could not be proven by verifiable documentation. Whereas, in the land property context, there can be many interests that are not recorded or otherwise verified.
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Bill Richards
Full Member
Posts: 758
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Re: Quitclaim
« Reply #2 on: Aug 10th, 2006, 4:01pm » |
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Thanks for the insight. I'm thinking about a putative inventor who may not be an inventor. Can he assign whatever rights he may have just to resolve ownership issues? Rather that get into a "swearing" contest about who is and is not an inventor, just finesse the issue. (I know, it can be resolved by the patent attorney, but this might save some trouble. The patent attorney then lists inventors the way they should be and everyone's happy.)
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William B. Richards, P.E.
The Richards Law Firm
Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights
614/939-1488
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Isaac
Senior Member
Posts: 3472
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Re: Quitclaim
« Reply #3 on: Aug 10th, 2006, 4:20pm » |
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on Aug 10th, 2006, 4:01pm, Bill Richards wrote:| Thanks for the insight. I'm thinking about a putative inventor who may not be an inventor. Can he assign whatever rights he may have just to resolve ownership issues? Rather that get into a "swearing" contest about who is and is not an inventor, just finesse the issue. (I know, it can be resolved by the patent attorney, but this might save some trouble. The patent attorney then lists inventors the way they should be and everyone's happy.) |
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If the party is a putative inventor, you cannot even file the patent application without sorting out inventorship to the extent possible. As claims are amended, canceled, or added, you are supposed to keep the application up to date. A quit claim deed to sort out a dispute based on whether or not a party was an inventor sounds fairly problematic.
If the quit claim deed was practical, it seems to me that it would be used to sort out a mess involving whether or not there was an obligation to assign or whether or not there had been an assignment, or maybe on whether some condition for assigning had or had not kicked in. I could probably imagine a fact pattern that would make a quit claim a possible solution, but I've never heard of one being used to disavow any patent rights.
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| « Last Edit: Aug 10th, 2006, 4:27pm by Isaac » |
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Isaac
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RL
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Someone in a former business is preparing a Quit Claim for me to sign telling me it will free me from any further and potential liability or responsibility for IP that is owned by multiple shareholders from a company prior to the former; of which the former only has a non-exclusive licensing right to the software from the prior--not ownership. I, as are others, are part of the ownership group from the prior, a company that was dissolved over a year ago. I don't feel comfortable with this type of agreement. Seems to me that someone is trying to get something for nothing--and overall, not doing business in a clean and transparent manner. Your thoughts?
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