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Topic: General Patent ??? (Read 856 times) |
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Jeff Travis
Guest
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Corey,
The "owner" of a patent could be the inventor(s) or, it could be anyone to whom they may have assigned the rights of the patent.
Also, as to inventorship, it may help you if you consider those who are merely constructing the invention based on the instructions of the inventor and those who have - as a previous post indicated - contributed to the invention. Sometimes this can be a fine line as many a practitioner will probably tell you.
-Jeff Travis
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JimIvey
Moderator
Senior Member
 
Posts: 2584
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Re: General Patent ???
« Reply #6 on: May 26th, 2004, 7:29pm » |
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Inventorship and ownership are two different things. They're related, but only losely.
Inventorship cannot be transferred and is defined by the language of the claims. As you change claim language during pendency of an application, you have to take care to update inventorship as necessary. It's not uncommon to cancel all claims to which a particular inventor contributed (for various reasons). Such would require removing that inventor from the list of inventors.
Ownership starts out being identical to inventorship but is transferrable. In my practice, the first thing most inventors do is assign all their ownership rights to their employer as required by their employment contract. However, a change in ownership does not change the list of named inventors. Patents are bought and sold all the time, but the patent must always name the actual inventors or it's invalid.
A corporation can never be an inventor, but a corporation can be a patent owner.
I hope that clarifies.
Regards.
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James D. Ivey
Law Offices of James D. Ivey
http://www.iveylaw.com
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Corey
Newbie
Posts: 12
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Re: General Patent ???
« Reply #7 on: May 27th, 2004, 8:40am » |
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thanks Jim,
That really clarified things for me.
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M. Arthur Auslander
Full Member
I love YaBB 1G - SP1!
Posts: 541
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Re: General Patent ???
« Reply #8 on: May 27th, 2004, 6:02pm » |
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Dear Corey,
My concern was that JUST consulting a lawyer was risky. There are only small percentage of lawyers that are SPECIALLY registered to prosecute patent matters before the USPTO.
When it comes to patent law there are even many that practice before the USPTO, prosecuting patent applicaions, that may not have broad experience in the reality of PATENT LAW, as distinguished from patent prosecution.
Thus even consulting a registered patent lawyer may not get the broad picture of the law, even if you are dealing with a a qualified patent lawyer. There are also non lawyers, caller patent agents who are only qualifed to prosecute patent application before the USPTO.
My book, which may be out of print now, Protecting and Profiting From Your Business Ideas, deals with these realities of Patents.
My focus is not to just get a patent, but for the client to get the most effective protection. In some instances it may even be with a trade secret.
It is also important to keep inventions secret AT LEAST until the patent application is filed.
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M. Arthur Auslander
Auslander & Thomas-Intellectual Property Law
3008 Johnson Ave., New York, NY 10463
7185430266, aus@auslander.com
Reality Check® ELAINE's Workshop®
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Corey
Newbie
Posts: 12
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Re: General Patent ???
« Reply #9 on: May 28th, 2004, 6:46am » |
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Dear Arthur,
I worked at AOL last summer for my uncle. While there he set up a meeting with a friend of his. He used to work for the patent office, but left and was an immediate partner at a big IP firm in D.C. He seemed to know his stuff, and my uncle says he is a great patent attorney.
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