Inventor

Here's the way Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, defines an invention:

In patent law, an inventor is the person, or persons in United States patent law, who contribute to the claims of a patentable invention. In some patent law frameworks however, such as in the European Patent Convention (EPC) and its case law, no explicit, accurate definition of who exactly is an inventor is provided. The definition may slightly vary from one European country to another. Inventorship is generally not considered to be a patentability criterion under European patent law.

Under U.S. case law, an inventor is the one with "intellectual domination" over the inventive process, and not merely one who assists in its reduction to practice. Since inventorship relates to the claims in a patent application, knowing who an inventor is under the patent law is sometimes difficult.

"Joint inventors", or "co-inventors", exist when a patentable invention is the result of inventive work of more than one inventor. Joint inventors exist even where one inventor contributed a majority of the work.

Absent a contract or license, the inventors are individuals who own the rights in an issued patent. Status as an inventor dramatically alters parties' ability to capitalize on the invention.

A profitable route for an inventor with a nimble mind who can produce lots of patentable things is to get a patent on an idea and hold it until someone buys him or her out. That works well for purchasers because (1) They acquire an already-patented good; 2) They can save on the time required to make said item; (3) If they're trying to attract venture capital they're that much more attractive; and (4) If they're in a related market, by buying the patent they can fence competitors out. If you're an entrepreneur you need to know about intentions and patents.

What do you think about this? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of my professional teaching, real estate, and writing practices. For my ideas on entrepreneurial real estate go to www.your stopforrealestate.com and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com