Patent Ownership/Shop Rights
Who owns “your invention” if you created it at your employer’s workplace?
A common law right called “shop rights” may govern and whether the employee or the employer owns the invention depends on the facts and circumstances of each case. Rights are not universal and vary from state-to-state.
Factors include:
* Employment contracts (an employee may assign all rights to inventions to an employer)
* The intentions of the parties-Was the employee “hired to invent?”
* The nature of the business
* The nature of the invention
* The circumstances involving the creation of the invention-Is the invention related to the employee’s job function, was it made using the employer’s tools, or other resources?