hired to invent
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Were the Patent Rights Assigned? The Federal Circuit Says No
I asked whether a software development agreement assigned the patent rights in the software. The district court held “yes” but the Federal Circuit disagreed. Here again is the evidence in a letter agreement between plaintiff James (through his company GSP Solutions) and defendant J2 Cloud, known as JFAX at the time: This letter shall serve […] Continue reading
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Were the Patent Rights Assigned?
Defendant J2 Cloud Services (JFAX) hired plaintiff Greg James to write some software. Unbeknownst to James, JFAX filed a patent on the software. Many years later, James sued JFAX for correction of inventorship. JFAX argued that James didn’t have standing for correction of inventorship because he had assigned his patent rights to JFAX. The district […] Continue reading
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Dodged a Bullet
Awhile back I titled a blog “Pay Attention to This One.” People did. You can read in more detail about the facts in the appeals court opinion blogged here, but the crux is that an inventor had an oral agreement with his employer that he would be paid a bonus for his inventions in exchange […] Continue reading
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A Partner is Not Hired to Invent
We have an interesting “employed to invent” story which arose in what I suspect can be the most common of situations—two people invent a product, form a company to commercialize it, file a patent application, and then have a falling out before the patent application is even completed. Who owns the patent? In Legacy Seating, […] Continue reading
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Pay Attention to This One
Ok, here’s one every in-house patent attorney should pay attention to. It’s a case from North Carolina state court, but has much wider-reaching ramifications. Maybe it’s a fact pattern that doesn’t arise too often, but the result is pretty eye-opening. Plaintiff Robert Morris was the first employee at the defendant company Scenera Research, LLC. There […] Continue reading
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