How to Invent and Protect Your Invention: A Guide to Patents for Scientists and Engineers

9.2 JOINT INVENTORS

Many inventions are conceived by a team of inventors, rather than a single inventor. These “joint inventors” should all be named on the patent application, as long as they contributed at least one claim to the patent. This rule applies regardless of whether they worked in different locations, worked at different times, made different levels or types of contribution, or contributed research leading to different claims. For example, if two scientists originate a new chemical by working together, they are joint inventors. If a supervisor working in a totally different facility then comes up with a practical use for the chemical, he too is a joint inventor if both are included in a single patent. And if a team of technicians, working under contract for the company in a for-profit lab, develop an unobvious process for improving the performance of the chemical reaction, they are also joint inventors. This, of course, assumes that all of these claims are being used as a single invention. Many companies will split the claims into a series of separate patents. This splitting of an invention into multiple patents may make it easier to license because the patents will each likely be issued to fewer co-inventors.

The examples above contrast with some illustrations of individuals who would not qualify as joint inventors. The lab technician who uses a chemical in a conventional fashion to produce a new chemical is not a joint inventor. Nor is the research assistant who builds ...