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Encyclopedia > Inventor (patent)
Patentability
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In patent law, an inventor is the person, or persons in United States patent law, who contribute to the claims of a patentable invention. In some patent law frameworks however, such as in the European Patent Convention (EPC) and its case law, no explicit, accurate definition of who exactly is an inventor is provided. The definition may slightly vary from one European country to another. Inventorship is generally not considered to be a patentability criterion under European patent law. Within the context of a national or multilateral body of law, an invention is patentable or, in other words, it satisfies the patentability requirements if it meets the legal conditions to be granted a patent. ... Novelty is a patentability test, according to which an invention is not patentable if it was already known before the date of filing, or before the date of priority if a priority is claimed, of the patent application. ... Non-obviousness is term used in US patent law to describe one of the three requirements that an invention must meet to qualify for patentability. ... The inventive step is a patentability requirement present in most European patent laws, and in particular in the European Patent Convention (EPC). ... Utility (patent) or industrial applicability is a patentability test. ... In patent law, industrial applicability or industrial application is a patentability requirement according to which a patent can only be granted for an invention which is susceptible of industrial application, i. ... In most patent laws, prior art or state of the art is all information that has been disclosed to the public in any form before a given date. ... A person having ordinary skill in the art (PHOSITA) or the person skilled in the art is a legal fiction defined in the Patent Act of the United States, and similarly by other patent laws in the world. ... A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a person for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or substance (known as an invention) which is new, inventive and useful. ... Corruption Jurisprudence Philosophy of law Law (principle) List of legal abbreviations Legal code Intent Letter versus Spirit Natural Justice Natural law Religious law Witness intimidation Legal research Critical legal studies External links Wikibooks Wikiversity has more about this subject: School of Law Look up law in Wiktionary, the free dictionary... In colloquial English, person is often synonymous with human. ... Within the context of a national or multilateral body of law, an invention is patentable or, in other words, it satisfies the patentability requirements if it meets the legal conditions to be granted a patent. ... In lay terms, an invention is a novel device, material, or technique. ... The European Patent Convention (EPC) or Convention on the Grant of European Patents of 5 October 1973 is a legal text instituting the European Patent Organisation and the system according to which European patents are granted. ... Case law (precedential law) is the body of judge-made law and legal decisions that interprets prior case law, statutes and other legal authority -- including doctrinal writings by legal scholars such as the Corpus Juris Secundum, Halsburys Laws of England or the doctinal writings found in the Recueil Dalloz... European patent law covers a wide range of legislations including national patent laws, the Strasbourg Convention of 1963, the European Patent Convention of 1973, and a number of European Union directives and regulations. ...


Under U.S. case law, an inventor is the one with "intellectual domination"[1] over the inventive process, and not merely one who assists in its reduction to practice. Since inventorship relates to the claims in a patent application, knowing who an inventor is under the patent law is sometimes difficult. The reduction to practice is a United States patent law concept. ... A patent application is a request filed before a patent office in which an applicant applies for a patent for an invention. ...


"Joint inventors" exist when a patentable invention is the result of inventive work of more than one inventor. Joint inventors exist even where one inventor contributed a majority of the work.


Absent a contract or license, the inventors are individuals who own the rights in an issued patent. Status as an inventor dramatically alters parties' ability to capitalize on the invention.[2] A contract is any legally-enforceable promise or set of promises made by one party to another and, as such, reflects the policies represented by freedom of contract. ... A license or licence is a document or agreement giving permission to do something. ...

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Inventorship

European Patent Convention

Under the European Patent Convention (EPC), identifying the inventor of a given invention is theoretically very important since "[t]he right to a European patent (...) belong[s] to the inventor or his successor in title" (Art. 60(1) EPC), according to the first-to-file principle (Art. 60(2) EPC). In practice however, the European Patent Office (EPO) never investigates whether the proposed inventor is indeed the true inventor. Indeed, "[f]or the purposes of proceedings before the [EPO], the applicant shall be deemed to be entitled to exercise the right to the European patent" (Art. 60(3) EPC). The first to file policy is a world-wide mainstream patent law doctrine used by nearly the whole world save the United States and the Philippines. ... The European Patent Organisation (EPO or EPOrg in order to distinguish it from the European Patent Office, which is the main organ of the organisation) is a public international organisation set up by the European Patent Convention. ... In the common law, legal fictions, are suppositions of fact taken to be true by the courts of law, but which are not necessarily true. ...


Court actions relating to the entitlement to the grant of a European patent must be brought before the national court which has the jurisdiction. The jurisdiction is determined in conformance with the "Protocol on Jurisdiction and the Recognition of Decisions in respect of the Right to the Grant of a European Patent" or, in short, the "Protocol on Recognition" [3]. Once a final decision is issued by a national court adjudging that the applicant is not entitled to the grant of a European patent, the procedure according to Art. 61 EPC is applicable [4].


In contrast with U.S. patent law, the applicant for a European patent needs not be the inventor. The right to the European patent may validly be transferred before the filing of the application, e.g. by contract, by inheritance, or as a consequence of the "employee's rights" as determined by the applicable national law (Art. 60(1) EPC). However, the inventor has the right to be mentioned as such before the EPO (Art. 62 EPC). The EPO does not verify the accuracy of the designation of the inventor (Rule 17(2) EPC). The inventor may waive its right to be mentioned as such in the European patent application and European patent specification (Rule 18(2) EPC). For other uses, see inheritance (disambiguation). ...


Inventorship is traditionally not classified as a patentability criterion under European patent law, in contrast with U.S. patent law. Within the context of a national or multilateral body of law, an invention is patentable or, in other words, it satisfies the patentability requirements if it meets the legal conditions to be granted a patent. ...


United States

In the United States, a patent application must be filed in the name of the inventors. This requirement that a patent be taken out in the name of the inventors is derived from the intellectual property clause of the United States Constitution: The intellectual property clause of the United States Constitution confers power on the United States Congress. ... Page I of the Constitution of the United States of America Page II of the United States Constitution Page III of the United States Constitution Page IV of the United States Constitution The Syng inkstand, with which the Constitution was signed The Constitution of the United States is the supreme...

The Congress shall have power . . . To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries

(emphasis added).


An inventor is a party who has contributed at least one claim to a patent. The courts explain that "[t]he threshold question" of inventorship is "who conceived the invention." Courts recognize that invention is rarely a solitary endeavor. Therefore, conception and "intellectual domination" over an invention is important and "reduction to practice, per se, is irrelevant. One must contribute to the conception to be an inventor." This page includes English translations of several Latin phrases and abbreviations such as . ...


Generally, conception is "the complete performance of the mental part of the inventive act", and the "the formation in the mind of the inventor of a definite and permanent idea of the complete and operative invention as it is thereafter to be applied in practice.."[5] (emphasis added). An idea is usually not "definite and permanent" or "complete" where changes resulting from experimentation. In this case, other individuals who contribute to the formation of the "definite and permanent" idea are co-inventors.


The naming of inventors is very important for the validity of the patent. Intentionally failing to name, or incorrectly identifying inventors, can result in a patent being held invalid. Ordinarily, the courts presume the named inventors are the inventors so long as there is no disagreement.


Notes

  1. ^  Morse v. Porter, 155 USPQ 280, 283 (Bd. Pat. Inter. 1965)
  2. ^  Ethicon v. United States Surgical Corp., 135 F.3d 1456, 45 U.S.P.Q.2d 1545 (Fed. Cir., 1998)
  3. ^  Townsend v. Smith, 36 F.2d 292, 295, 4 USPQ 269, 271 (CCPA 1930)

1965 was a common year starting on Friday (link goes to calendar). ... 1998 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...

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