Who owns the invention?

[ali_mos]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas
I asked similar question before and now I am restating it in a different form. The trouble comes from the employment invention agreement where it says any idea/invention related to the "employer business" is owned by employer no matter if it was conceived/developed on or off the working hours. The question is what does "employer business" mean? This is especially confusing in case of large companies like GE in which all kind of machines and tools from washing machines to jet engines are made. Hypothetically, if an employee in "jet engine" department invents something (on his time after working hours without using the work resources) that can be used in "washing machine" department, who owns the invention. The fair interpretation, to me, for the "employer business" should refer to all related activities to that specific department with related job description. Therefore, the "employer business" should be limited to the business unit where the employee is working and with this in mind the employee in the example owns the invention. I am interested to hear your comments/feedback?

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas
I asked similar question before and now I am restating it in a different form. The trouble comes from the employment invention agreement where it says any idea/invention related to the "employer business" is owned by employer no matter if it was conceived/developed on or off the working hours. The question is what does "employer business" mean? This is especially confusing in case of large companies like GE in which all kind of machines and tools from washing machines to jet engines are made. Hypothetically, if an employee in "jet engine" department invents something (on his time after working hours without using the work resources) that can be used in "washing machine" department, who owns the invention. The fair interpretation, to me, for the "employer business" should refer to all related activities to that specific department with related job description. Therefore, the "employer business" should be limited to the business unit where the employee is working and with this in mind the employee in the example owns the invention. I am interested to hear your comments/feedback?

The one who creates the invention is the inventor and the inventor will be the owner of any patent on the invention under most circumstances.

One circumstance where the inventor will not be the owner is when the inventor is an employee and all inventions created during the course of employment become the property of the employer (are assigned to the employer), under the terms of the employment agreement or because of type of employment.

The type of employment and the terms of employment, then, are important in determining ownership.

The inventor can also assign rights to their invention to development companies, usually for some sort of compensation.

With hypothetical questions, there is no easy answer. Almost all of law is fact-specific.

Here is a link to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), for information on patents: http://www.uspto.gov

If you are an inventor and have a specific concern about who owns what you invented, you would be smart to sit down with a patent attorney in your area for a review of the facts. Good luck.




These are links to your other threads, ali_mos, and it appears we addressed this same matter in both of them (the "form" of the question is not all that different ):

https://forum.freeadvice.com/patents-104/developing-similar-product-current-employer-products-603484.html

https://forum.freeadvice.com/patents-104/how-determine-if-invention-related-employer-business-603708.html