This means that the business has to make sure that it owns the contributions of all the inventors, the people who came-up with the invention covered by the patent application. If the business does not own the rights, the patent or patent application could be in jeopardy and expensive ownership disputes could arise.
Briefly, when a business wants to file a patent application it ideally needs to:
- Identify the inventors, the people who made the invention
- Identify who owns the contribution of each inventor e.g. by virtue of employment
- Identify the intended applicant(s) - i.e. the person(s) in whose name(s) the patent application is to be filed (this can be a legal personality such as a company)
- If the owner(s) of the contributions of each inventor is not the same as the intended applicant, then have a plan for how that ownership is transferred in a timely fashion to the intended owner(s).
Some case studies are presented which illustrate how things can go wrong.