When a Consultant Starts Work Before Signing the Agreement
An article by Dennis Crouch in the Patentlyo.com blog looks at the TriReme v. AngioScore federal circuit court ruling about the ownership of potential patent rights, which the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly found initially vest with the inventor(s).
“Corporations must be getting somewhat annoyed with the antics of these pesky inventors,” Crouch writes. “TriReme v. AngioScore centers on an inventorship dispute involving Dr. Chaim Lotan who was previously a paid consultant with AngioScore but who later sold his rights to a competitor TriReme. In the lawsuit, TriReme sued for correction-of-inventorship of three AngioScore patents that do not currently list Lotan as an inventor.”
“So far in our law, the set of potential ‘inventors’ is limited to human persons (not corporate persons or machines or macaques). The initial right may, however, be transferred to through an assignment agreement.” according to the article.
