Inventorship and Ownership of U.S. Patents

Inventorship determines initial ownership of the claimed invention and thus properly determining and listing inventorship is in some cases every bit as important as properly listing the names of the owners on a deed to a very valuable property. The ownership 

The Chemist s Companion Guide to Patent Law, by Chris P. Miller and Mark J. Evans Copyright 2010 John Wiley Sons, Inc. 

An assignment of less than the entire rights of the invention by the patent applicants is more commonly referred to as a license.4 It is possible that according to some 

for example, Fina Technology, Inc. v. Ewen, 265 F.3d 1325, 60 U.S.P.Q.2d 1314 (Fed. Cir. 2001), the particular order in which the names appear is of no consequence insofar as the legal rights of the joint applicants are concerned.  

116paragraph 1 provides the following When an invention is made by two or more persons jointly, they shall apply for patent jointly and each make die required oath, except as otherwise provided in this title. Inventors may apply for a patent jointly even though (1) they did not physically work together or at the same time, (2) they did not make die same type or amount of contribution, or (3) each did not make a contribution to the subject matter of every claim of die patent.  

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