So if you are going to have a intellectual property system, then someone has to own that property. That starts with Inventor and then proceeds to Assignee (whic

So if you are going to have a intellectual property system, then someone has to own that property. That starts with Inventor and then proceeds to Assignee (which never changes) through Legal Events to the current owner. If you're gonna have a property system then you have to have ownership. You can have multiple Inventors and, failing Assignment to a third party, then each Inventor will have equal rights. Also, you really really have to declare everyone because if you don't they can come in later and claim ownership regardless of later transfers. So there can be multiple ownership (but VCs are gonna hate that). Also, with the tennis ball vs yellow tennis ball example, there's a 'form' of multiple/conflicting ownership. Berkeley can't manufacture yellow tennis balls and Harvard/MIT can't manufacture tennis balls at all. Unless they both come to the table and agree.