Got a Better Mousetrap?

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Sharing Your Assets

A patent is personal property. It may be sold to others or mortgaged and it may be bequeathed by a will. Patent law provides for the transfer or sale of a patent, or of an application for patent, by a written instrument, referred to as an assignment. The assignment may transfer all or a partial interest of the patent.

When the patent is assigned, the recipient becomes the owner of the patent and has the same rights as the original patentee. Two or more persons may also jointly own the patent, as in the case of an assignment or when a patent is granted to joint inventors. An employee may also jointly own an invention with his or her employer, as defined in an employment agreement.

The owner of a patent may grant licenses to others, in which case the patent license agreement, in reality, is a promise by the licensor not to sue the licensee. Worldwide Safety has such an agreement with its manufacturing and distribution partner that includes provisions for payment of royalties.

The patentee who makes or sells the patented articles is required to mark the articles with the word Patent and its number. The terms Patent Applied For or Patent Pending have no legal effect, but they do indicate that an application for patent has been filed in the USPTO. The protection afforded by a patent does not begin until the actual grant of the patent.

Selling Your Invention At What Cost?

Where you want to market and/or manufacture your invention will determine your foreign patent applications. If you wish to receive patent protection in other countries, you must apply for one in each country, according to its requirements.

The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property is a treaty adhered to by 140 countries. It provides that each country guarantees to the citizens of the other countries the same rights in patent and trademark matters that it accords to its own citizens.

The timely filing of an international application affords applicants an international filing date in each country, which is designated in the international application and provides a search of the invention and a later time period within which the national application for a patent must be filed.

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