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Topic: Can A Provisional Application Have Assignees ? (Read 1117 times) |
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Sven Fischler
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Can A Provisional Application Have Assignees ?
« on: Apr 8th, 2007, 8:33pm » |
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Hi there, great forums, maybe someone can help me.
A year ago, I was working with a firm that had an attorney on retainer. I devised an invention, and in exchange for some promises (which i believed at the time) of compensation I signed off on a _Provisional Application_ that had the company named as an assignee.
Not long afterward, I was terminated from the company in a restructuring, and we did not discuss the patent.
Now I am fairly certain that they have not prosecuted the patent. No filings of Assignation or Patent are to be found on the USPTO db's.
Does this constitute abandonment ? Can I refile a Provisional Application now, with no assignees ? What, if any, amount of the original documentation can I use in my application ?
I did not see an 'Assignee' field in the USPTO's cover sheet example... Is it even possible to assign rights at that stage ? Can they litigate against me if I refile and prosecute to Non-Provisional ?
No hard resources were spent in development, except perhaps some hours by an assistant on my staff being paid to help document/diagram...
Thanks in advance for any help or opinions...
SF
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Isaac
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Posts: 3472
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Re: Can A Provisional Application Have Assignees ?
« Reply #1 on: Apr 9th, 2007, 7:55am » |
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on Apr 8th, 2007, 8:33pm, Sven Fischler wrote:Now I am fairly certain that they have not prosecuted the patent. No filings of Assignation or Patent are to be found on the USPTO db's.
Does this constitute abandonment ? Can I refile a Provisional Application now, with no assignees ? What, if any, amount of the original documentation can I use in my application ? |
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No, and even abandonment wouldn't give you the right to file a patent after assigning the patent rights.
Quote:| I did not see an 'Assignee' field in the USPTO's cover sheet example... Is it even possible to assign rights at that stage ? Can they litigate against me if I refile and prosecute to Non-Provisional ? |
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Yes it is possible to assign a provisional application.
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Isaac
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