Inventorship: Who should be listed as an inventor for a patent?

​​Patently Strategic - Patent Strategy for Startups

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In the US especially, patents are granted to inventors. More often than not, that’s more than one person and the ideas themselves are fluid concepts that often evolve through many handoffs from initial conception through implementation and sometimes even throughout patent prosecution, but how do we determine who all should – and is legally required to be – officially named as an inventor?
In the constitutionally expressed interest of protecting inventors and the conception of their ideas, failure to include the right people can be a death sentence for a patent and grounds for invalidity.
In this episode, Daniel Wright, Partnership Manager and Patent Strategist here​​ at Aurora, will lead a deep dive into the origins of inventorship, break down who is and isn’t eligible for inclusion as an inventor, and explain how improper inventorship could result in revoked patent rights.
Daniel is joined today by:
* David Jackrel, President of Jackrel Consulting
* David Cohen, Principal at Cohen Sciences.
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** Resources **
* Show notes: https://www.aurorapatents.com/blog/new-podcast-inventorship

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And as always, thanks for listening!
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Note: The contents of this podcast do not constitute legal advice.

Chapters

1. Intro (00:00:00)

2. Inventorship (00:01:39)

3. The human element (00:02:46)

4. Why naming inventors matters (00:03:37)

5. Conception vs reduction to practice (00:04:38)

6. Joint inventors (00:06:32)

7. Claim change implications (00:08:55)

8. Conception, inventorship, and prior art (00:13:47)

9. Fictional example (00:14:54)

10. Case Law: Pannu v. Iolab Corp (00:17:24)

11. Correcting inventorship (00:21:58)

12. Case Law: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Inc. v. Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (00:27:39)

13. Outro (00:44:34)