Ownership

• Author: Rolf Sander
• Pages: 69-80

69

4

Ownership

Rolf Sander

4.1

The Rights of the Inventor

In general, intellectual property rights may be divided into the personal right to

be acknowledged as the creator of the intellectual property, and the commercial

right to exploit economically the fruits of this creativity. Creation itself may take

many forms: development of a technical invention, computer programming,

design of a chair, authorship or translation of a book. The developer of an

improved video camera, for example, has the right to be named as the inventor in

the patent application that derives from the invention. Whether the same inventor

has a right to exploit this invention commercially will depend on circumstances

such as whether the invention was made in partnership with another inventor or

during the course of employment. This chapter addresses these questions, the

answers to which differ significantly from country to country. Readers are advised

to seek advice tailored to their specific situation and geography.

From a legal point of view, the inventor cannot transfer this personal right, for

example, to a friend to enhance their reputation as an inventor. It is also impossi-

ble to nominate a person who has contributed nothing to the invention as a joint

inventor. Indeed the personal rights to intellectual property are generally not

transferable, and this chapter only makes reference to rights of exploitation.

These commercial rights comprise, for example, the right to license a patent or

the right to sue someone for infringing a patent, a registered design or utility

model. These exploitation rights have a large economical impact, and accordingly,

they may be transferred to any natural or legal person. A “natural” person is a

human being, whereas a “legal” person is a legally registered entity such as a cor-

poration, university or foundation.

In essence the commercial rights to intellectual property belong to its creator.

Creators are natural persons, and in most jurisdictions a legal person like a com-

pany, which acts through authorised natural persons, may not itself be a creator.

Nevertheless, companies, as employers, may have the right to claim ownership of

intellectual property created by their employees. This chapter discusses employee

invention ownership in depth.