copyright patents authorship
Is it a personal care or a Company care to correct the list of Authors of a Patent owned by the Company?
<p>My name was missed in several patents issued by a Company with whom I was in the past. I contacted a very experienced Attorney in Employer-Employee Relations for an advice. His belief was that I cannot do anything if the Company does not want to add my name as an Author of a patent owned by The Company. However, this is a matter of Authorship but not a matter of Ownership. In Authorship it is only the Person (the Author) who matter. A Company may own the Patent but they do not own the persons names. </p>

<p>I gave the Attorney the following example: I own a Mercedes car and in my garage I replaced all the car signs of Mercedes with those of GM. I can do that because I own the car, but I cannot drive such a car on the street - It is illegal to change the Authorship (in that case Mercedes). He said "Very interesting example - I have not thought about such situation" but he remained firm on the belief that I cannot do anything to protect my name as an Author if the patent is owned by a Company, and the Company does not want to include my name regardless that the key idea of the patent is mine. </p>

<p>In other words, I think it is illegal to ignore an Author of a patent, and it is a personal care of the missing Author in the list this to be corrected. It is not a Company care. I believe that a Person do not need an agreement by the Company to file a claim for Patent Authorship and support his claim with enough evidences.</p>

<p>You will want to speak with a patent attorney, not a labor attorney. Some of the facts you are presenting are entirely wrong.</p>

<p>Patents have inventors, copyrights have authors. Inventorship has strict rules.</p>

<p>Inventorship cannot be denied without consequence in almost any jurisdiction, but you'll need to get local legal advice.  In the US, "A patent is invalid unless it lists the first and true inventor or inventors of the claimed invention." (See Stark v. Advanced Magnetics, 119 F.3d 1551, 1553, 1556 (Fed. Cir. 1997); 35 U.S.C. § 102(f) (“A person shall be entitled to a
patent unless . . . he did not himself invent the subject matter sought to be patented). See also 35 U.S.C. §§ 111, 115-16, 256.) </p>

<p><em>Assignment</em>--the "ownership" of the patent--is different. It's very common to have you sign an agreement as a condition of your employment that you grant full assignment to your company for any patentable material created under their employ. If you did not, it is possible that the company would need to give you consideration for the right to assignment, e.g., they would have to pay you something to own the patent. If you are no longer there, that "something" can be substantial, because the patent is invalid without it, and they have little leverage over you.</p>

<p>Bring all written records, emails, etc. to a licensed attorney who specializes in patent litigation.</p>
