{"id":132,"date":"2017-11-21T01:52:04","date_gmt":"2017-11-21T01:52:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/patents\/?p=132"},"modified":"2020-07-20T04:06:16","modified_gmt":"2020-07-20T04:06:16","slug":"owners-of-the-patents-who-can-be-an-owner-under-the-united-states-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/patents\/2017\/11\/21\/owners-of-the-patents-who-can-be-an-owner-under-the-united-states-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Owners of the Patents: Who can be an owner under the United States system?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The application is required to be made or authorized by the actual inventor of the claimed subject matter. Also, the inventor must sign a statement, under oath, that acknowledges the duties attendant to obtain a patent, as required under \u00a7\u00a7<\/span>111<\/span><\/a> – <\/span>115<\/span><\/a> of the United States Code.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though the proprietary rights of a patent initially vest in the inventor, those rights are considered a form of <\/span>personal property<\/span><\/a>, which means that they can be transferred. Therefore, it is fundamental to differentiate between \u201cownership\u201d and \u201cinventorship\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the case <\/span>Beech Aircraft Corp. v. EDO Corp.<\/span><\/a> (<\/span>990 F.2d 1237 (1993)<\/span>), the United States Court of Appeals stated that:<\/span><\/p>\n

Inventorship<\/i><\/b> is a question of who actually invented the subject matter claimed in a patent, while <\/span><\/i>ownership <\/i><\/b>is a question of who owns legal title to the subject matter claimed in a patent<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ownership allows the owner to:<\/span><\/p>\n