Are You Sure You Own That Patent?

In the United States, employers don’t own an employee’s or consultant’s inventions unless the employee/consultant signs an agreement transferring his or her ownership of an invention to the employer.[1] The agreement transferring the employee’s ownership rights is called an “assignment.” And if a patent names more than one inventor, the inventors jointly and equally own the patent, even if one inventor contributed the lion’s share of the invention and the other inventor(s) made much smaller contributions. Absent an assignment from each inventor, each inventor can separately sell or license his or her interest to whomever he or she chooses.

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